THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


OM1AS, 


% 


THE  MISSING  LINK  IN  SHORTHAND 


A  Treatise  on 


LEGIBILITY  AND  THE  ACQUIREMENT  OP  SPEED 


in 


STENOGRAPHIC  WRITING 


By 


Samuel  C.  Dunham 


Washington 

Published  by  the  Author 
1894 


Copyrighted  1894 

by 
Samuel  C.  Dunham. 


PREFACE 


This  book  has  been  produced  by  photo- 
lithography. For  the  purpose  of  showing 
to  some  extent  what  may  be  accomplished 
with  the  perfected  writing  machine,  be- 
yond the  uses  to  which  it  is  ordinarily 
put,  the  author  prepared  the  text  on  a 
No.  2  Remington  typewriter.  The  initial 
letter  "I"  on  page  63  was  made  by  use  of 
the  underscore  and  a  special  type  (|)  de- 
vised several  years  ago  by  the  author  for 
use  in  tabular  matter,  etc.  The  border 
of  this  page  was  produced  by  the  same 
means,  but  to  save  time  and  labor  all  the 
other  borders  were  printed  in  the  ordi- 
nary way. 

When  this  enterprise  was  undertaken 
the  author  was  somewhat  at  a  loss  for  an 
adequate  excuse  for  presenting  to  the 
public  another  work  on  stenography,  but 
the  splendid  symposium  of  autographic 
shorthand  which  constitutes  the  greater 
portion  of  the  stenographic  part,  and 
which,  by  the  way,  is  the  result  of  an 
afterthought,  not  only  renders  an  apology 
unnecessary,  but  furnishes  a  sufficient 
motive  for  the  publication  of  the  book, 
even  if  it  contained  nothing  but  that  one 


448495 


feature.  The  thanks  of  the  author  are 
due  to  all  of  the  gentlemen  who  have  con- 
tributed to  this  part,  and  he  is  under 
particular  obligations  to  Mr.  David  Wolfe 
Brown,  the  senior  member  of  the  corps  of 
official  reporters  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, and  to  Mr.  Theo.  P.  Shuey,  of 
the  Senate  corps,  for  their  encouragement 
and  for  their  invaluable  assistance  in 
making  this  feature  a  success. 

With  the  hope  that  this  book  may  be 
the  means  of  making  lighter  the  burdens 
of  the  beginner  in  the  study  of  shorthand 
and  that  the  veteran  may  not  find  in  it 
much  to  condemn,  the  author  consigns  it 
to  the  tender  keeping  of  his  stenographic 
brethren. 


CONTENTS 


Page 

Preface,   .......  3 

Introduction,    .        .    .    .    .  7 

Conflicting  Word-Forms,  etc.,  .  .  10 

List  of  Conflicting  Word-Forms,  etc.,  27 

Causes  of  Hesitation  in  Writing,  .  29 

Phrase-Writing,  39 

Acquirement  of  Speed,  ....  52 

Selected  Matter  and  Shorthand  Notes,  54 
Needless  Burdens  of  the  Modern  Learner  55 

Key  to  same,   ......  63 

Page  from  Note-Book  of  S.  C.  Dunham,  62 

Key  to  same,   ......  75 

Shorthand  Contributions  and  Fac-Simile 

Reporting  Notes,   79 

Contributions  by — 

D.  F.  Murphy, 89 

Key  to  same,   .....  110 

Theo.  F.  Shuey, 90 

Key  to  same,   .....  Ill 

E.  V.  Murphy, 92 

Key  to  same,   .....  113 

H.  J.  Gensler, 93 

Key  to  same, 114 

Dan.  B.  Lloyd,  .....  94 

Key  to  same,  .....  116 

Milton  W.  Blumenberg,  ....  95 

Key  to  same, 117 


Contributions  by —  Page 

David  Wolf 6  Brown,  ....  96 

Key  to  same,  .  .  .  .  120 
John  H.  White, 98 

Key  to  same,  .  .  .  .  123 
Andrew  Devine,  99 

Key  to  same,   ......    124 

A.  C.  Welch, 100 

Key  to  same,  .....  127 
Fred  Irland, 101 

Key  to  same, 128 

Geo.  C.  Lafferty, 102 

Key  to  same, 130 

W.  J.  Kehoe,  .......  103 

Key  to  same, 131 

E.  D.  Easton, 104 

Key  to  same, 133 

Eugene  Davis,  105 

Key  to  same,   .....    135 

Fac-Simile  Reporting  Notes — 

By  Charles  Flowers,    ....  107 

Key  to  same,   .....  139 

By  George  N.  Hillman,  .    .    .    .  108 

Key  to  same,   .    ...    .    .  141 

By  Joseph  E.  Lyons,    ....  109 

Key  to  same,   .    .    .    .  143 

Index, 145 


INTRODUCTION 


During  the  past  quarter  of  a  century 
there  have  appeared  in  this  country  and 
abroad  numerous  shorthand  text-books, 
each  purporting  to  promulgate  a  new  "sys- 
tem" of  stenography,  but  nearly  all  of 
which  are  in  fact  mere  modifications  or 
adaptations  of  the  Isaac  Pitman  phonog- 
raphy, embellished  more  or  less  by  new 
hooks  and  expedients,  and  rendered  more 
complex  and  difficult  of  acquirement  by 
the  addition  of  various  abbreviating  de- 
vices of  doubtful  utility.  While  two  or 
three  of  the  "new  systems"  are  in  some 
respects  improvements  on  the  old  pho- 
nography, all  the  others  have  been  found 
in  practice  to  be  inferior  to  the  simple 
and  logical  method  of  writing  shorthand 
which  prevailed  forty  or  fifty  years  ago. 
It  is  true  that  some  of  the  later  methods 
possess  much  greater  theoretical  brevity 
than  the  old  phonography,  but  this  has 
been  secured  at  the  expense  of  legibil- 
ity, and  their  mastery  entails  upon  the 
learner  an  amount  of  labor  which  is  not 
justified  by  the  results  attained.  Each 
succeeding  author,  instead  of  being  con- 
tent to  simplify  and  harmonize  the  ample 


material  already  existing,  has  apparently 
striven  to  produce  a  system  which  should 
have  the  semblance  of  originality,  and  to 
that  end  has  encumbered  his  text-book 
with  as  many  novelties  as  his  ingenuity 
could  devise,  many  of  which  had  never 
been  tested  in  practice,  and  most  of 
which,  although  alluring  and  brief  in 
theory,  are  found  in  actual  work  to  be 
impracticable  and  unsafe.  Recognizing 
these  defects  in  existing  text-books,  the 
writer  some  years  ago  "broke  away  from  the 
false  prophets  and  determined  to  work  out 
his  own  stenographic  salvation.  Starting 
with  Graham's  reporting  style,  in  its 
more  simple  form,  as  a  basis,  the  author 
has,  by  a  careful  selection  of  well-tried 
expedients  from  the  reporting  notes  of 
some  of  the  best  stenographers  in  the 
country,  so  modified  and  simplified  his 
style  that  conflict  between  familiar  word 
forms  has  been  practically  overcome, 
while  hesitation  in  writing  such  phrases 
as  he  uses  has  been  reduced  to  a  minimum, 
thus  securing  much  greater  legibility 
than  he  was  ever  able  to  attain  by  a 
strict  adherence  to  Graham1 s  principles, 
and  at  the  same  time  very  materially  in- 
creasing his  speed.  Every  word-sign  and 
contraction  presented  in  this  book,  with 
one  or  two  exceptions,  which  will  "be 
noted  in  the  proper  place,  has  been  used 


8 


for  years  by  some  of  our  best  stenogra- 
phers and  proved  to  be  absolutely  safe, 
and  the  suggestions  relative  to  phrasing 
are  based  on  the  practice  of  the  same 
eminent  authorities.  These  various  modi- 
fications, each  in  itself  of  slight  sig- 
nificance, but  in  the  aggregate  consti- 
tuting the  means  of  overcoming  many  of 
the  difficulties  which  are  encountered  by 
the  student  in  acquiring  a  practical 
knowledge  of  stenography,  have  been  de- 
nominated, for  want  of  a  more  comprehen- 
sive title,  "The  Missing  Link  in  Short- 
hand", and  they  are  submitted  to  all 
writers  of  phonography  who  have  not  al- 
ready selected  similar  expedients  with 
the  confident  belief  that  they  will  be 
found,  after  a  fair  trial,  to  be  worthy 
of  adoption. 


CONFLICTING  WORD-FORMS 


Nearly  all  authors  of  text-books  based 
on  the  phonetic  shorthand  of  Isaac  Pitman 
have  adopted  his  very  defective  lists  of 
grammalogues  and  contractions  as  the  nu- 
cleus of  their  own  more  extensive  but 
equally  imperfect  lists.  Mr*  Munson,  Mr. 
Bishop,  Mr,  Osgoodby,  and  one  or  two  oth- 
ers have  evidently  realized  the  need  of 
distinctive  outlines  for  some  of  the  con- 
flicting word-forms  in  the  old  phonogra- 
phy, but,  unfortunately,  in  attempting  to 
provide  them  have  so  radically  "reformed" 
the  whole  structure  of  phonography  as  to 

10 


render  their  text-books  worthless  to  the 
student  who  desires  to  follow  the  study 
of  the  art  according  to  the  methods  used 
by  the  great  body  of  shorthand  writers, 
although  the  experienced  stenographer  may 
find  in  them  some  features  of  much  value. 
The  consequence  is  that  phonography,  as 
exemplified  in  the  most  popular  text- 
books and  as  written  by  the  large  major- 
ity of  shorthand  writers  to-day,  is  en- 
cumbered by  a  score  or  two  of  word-signs 
and  contractions  of  the  most  common  use 
which  clash  badly  under  varying  condi- 
tions, requiring  constant  care  on  the 
part  of  the  conscientious  stenographer, 
through  vocalization  or  other  means,  to 

11 


avoid  conflict.  In  this  chapter  the  ef- 
fort is  made  to  provide  for  the  most  com- 
mon of  such  conflicting  word-forms  dis- 
tinctive outlines  which  will  not  clash, 
even  when  written  out  of  position  and  un- 
vocalized.  At  the  close  of  the  chapter 
is  given  a  list  of  word-signs,  contrac- 
tions, etc.,  which  contains  nearly  all 
words  written  in  accordance  with  the  sug- 
gestions offered  in  this  book.  In  most 
other  cases  the  author  follows  quite 
closely  the  outlines  given  in  Graham* s 
Handbook  of  Standard  Phonography,  and  he 
advises  the  students  of  other  systems  to 
do  the  same  with  regard  to  the  text-books 
from  which  they  learned  the  art.  From 

12 


experience  he  is  convinced  that  it  is  un- 
wise, after  one  has  thoroughly  mastered 
any  system,  to  make  a  change  involving 
fundamental  principles,  as  the  hesitation 
in  writing  caused  by  the  constant  tend- 
ency to  revert  to  those  principles  first 
acquired  more  than  counterbalances  any 
advantage  to  be  derived  from  the  adoption 
of  another  system,  even  though  the  new 
system  selected  be  far  superior  to  the 
one  abandoned.  The  few  simple  changes 
suggested  in  this  chapter,  however,  can 
easily  be  made,  and  if  adopted  one  at  a 
time  can  gradually  be  incorporated  into 
one's  writing  with  no  difficulty  what- 
ever. The  words  in  the  list  which  seem 

13 


to  require  some  comment  are  the  follow- 
ing: 

ACCOUNT,  AMOUNT. — By  reason  of  their 
close  resemblance,,  ^account  and  ~.  amount 
are  apt  to  clash,  and  having  the  same 
vowel  sound,  different  outlines  are  nec- 
essary. Write  ..^rrv:..  for  account. 

AFTER,  FUTURE.— It  is  incomprehensible 
why  words  so  apt  to  clash  as  ...v,. ...after  and 
.-..,..... future  should  have  been  given  the  same 
sign.  Difference  in  position  does  not 
provide  sufficient  means  of  distinction. 
The  use  of-...i. for  after  is  recommended. 

AFTERNOON,  FORENOON.— As  usually  writ- 
ten ( ...s^_r>..afternoon, S^.. forenoon) ,  these 

words  quite  frequently  conflict.  Write 

14 


.for  the  former  and ..L_a..f or  the  latter. 

ANNUAL,  ONLY. --Graham  gives  the  same 
outline  for  both  of  these  words.  As  they 
sometimes  clash,  it  is  advisable  to  write 
..^-.for  annual. 

ASTONISH,  ESTABLISH,  OPPORTUNITY. --The 
minute  signs  provided  by  most  authors  for 
these  words  are  the  source  of  much  uncer- 
tainty, as  there  are  many  cases  in  which 
they  conflict  with  the  forms  of  other 
words.  The  outlines  given  for  them  and 
their  derivatives  in  the  accompanying 
list  are  absolutely  legible  and  suffi- 
ciently brief  for  practical  purposes. 

BUT,  AND. — The  signs  for  these  words, 
as  usually  written  ( ,  ..and,.. -i.. but ) ,  fre- 

15 


quently  clash  in  rapid  writing,  the  dot 
having  a  tendency  to  become  a  tick,  and 
the  tick  sometimes  degenerating  into  a 
dot.  The  adoption  of  Munson1  s_ _\  for  but 
provides  a  means  of  absolute  distinction 
and  at  the  same  time  furnishes  a  stroke 
which  phrases  readily. 

CAN,  CAN  NOT. — These  words,  as  usually 

written  (  T— ^  .can, can  not),  constantly 

clash,  especially  in  testimony.  Mr.  Gra- 
ham writes  !7_  ..for  I  can  and  '  ...for  I  can 
not,  which  are  obviously  liable  to  con- 
flict. Mr.  Munson,  Mr.  Marsh,  and  one  or 

two  other  authors  use for  can,  and  it 

has  been  adopted  by  the  writer.  In  prac- 
tice.- can  should  be  written  considera- 

16 


bly  longer  than  the  ordinary  K-stroke,  so 
as  to  distinguish  it  from could. 

COME,  GO. — The  signs  provided  by  many 
text-books  for  these  words  (.  .-^-...come,.—... 
go)  are  very  liable  to  clash.  Write  ^—> 
for  come. 

CONNECT,  ACT. — Connect  and  its  deriva- 
tives sometimes  clash  with  act  and  its 
derivatives,  as  commonly  written:  —  .con- 
nect,.  _act.  The  adoption  of.  r-^. for  the 

former  removes  all  danger  of  conflict  and 
provides  an  outline  which  phrases  well, 
as:...7kr-^>in  this  connection,..s_^-i^.  no  con- 
nection. 

ERRONEOUS,  EARNEST. — Mr.  Graham  writes 
erroneous  and..Z^..for  earnest,  and 

17 


as  a  consequence  they  frequently  clash. 
Safety  is  secured  by  writ  ing. ,TI_p.  .for  erro- 
neous. 

EXAMINE,  SUMMON.— These  words,  which 
occur  very  often  in  legal  reporting,  are 
represented  by  the  same  sign  in  Graham's 
Handbook.  The  adoption  of-rrrtc?>...for  exam- 
ine is  recommended. 

EXPEND,  SPEND. — Mr.  Graham  represents 
both  of  these  words  by  the  same  outline. 
Obviously  the  former  should  be  written  in 
full  :..-—§... expend. 

HALF,  PEW. — Although  these  words  quite 
often  conflict,  most  of  the  text-books 
give  the  same  sign  for  both:.  {_. half ,  few. 
Write.,  /..for  half.  It  joins  naturally  in 

18 


compounds  and  phrases  well,  as:.  ...«u*f. .one- 
half  ,... vt- half  dozen. 

£fc_^x 

HIM,  ME. — The  signs  for  these  words, 
as  usually  written  (..<^..him, me),  con- 
stantly clash,  especially  in  phrases.  By 
the  adoption  of_..../.  ...for  him  absolute  dis- 
tinction is  secured.  This  sign  compounds 
and  phrases  naturally,  as :...A. -himself *.>^*. 

know  him,.. ...C777... like  him, I,.. ..for  him.   It 

does  not  clash  with.... A... .who. 

NOTHING,  ENOUGH.— It   is   strange  that 

* — 1     *-^t 
outlines  so  much  alike  as.  . .(. ..and v... 

should  have  been  accepted  for  thirty-five 
years  as  the  "standard"  for  words  so  apt 
to  conflict  as  nothing  and  enough.  Write 
.for  nothing. 

19 


OF,  OP  A,  OF  THE. — Some  authors  indis- 
criminately indicate  of,  of  a,  and  of  the 
by  writing  the  strokes  between  which  they 
occur  close  together.  It  is  generally 
desirable,  and  in  legal  reporting  abso- 
lutely necessary,  to  make  a  distinction 

between  these  words.   They  are  written  in 

v     •       > 
this  book  thus: of,   of  a, of  the. 

Of  the  is  also  indicated  according  to  Mr. 
Graham's  rule,  viz.:  by  writing  the  words 
between  which  it  occurs  close  together  or 

by  joining  them,  thus: day  of  the 

week,..?^^..  .one  of  the  best. 

OLDER,  LATER. — Graham's  Handbook  gives 

the  same  sign  (....L. )  for  these  clashing 

words.  Write £  ....for  older. 

20 


OR. --The  sign  provided  for  this  little 

i 
word  by  most  of  the  text-books  0 or)  is 

the  source  of  much  uncertainty  in  read- 
ing, although  it  might  be  difficult  to 
specify  any  particular  instances  where  it 
clashes  with  other  signs.  The  use  of 
^ .for  or  is  advised.  It  stands  out  dis- 
tinctly in  one's  notes,  and  it  phrases 

better  than  the  old  sign;  e.  g.: on  or 

about ,...._. ..on  or  before,.....^!  on  or  after, 

fS 

did  you  or  not,.. ..A three  or  four, 


four  or  five. 

PAID,  PUT. — These  words,  as  written  by 
most  modern  authors  (  \.  paid,  ...x. .put ),  are 
liable  to  clash.  Write..  .>-....  for  paid. 

PRINCIPLE-PAL,   PRACTICE.— Mr.   Graham 

21 


writes^  \ for  principle-pal  and. A for 

practice.  As  they  sometimes  clash,  it  is 
advisable  to  write  A for  principle-pal. 

REGARD,  REGRET. — Notwithstanding  these 
words  are  liable  to  conflict,  many  text- 
books assign  to  them  the  same  outline: 
-..^r. .. regard, __^~.._ regret.  Write,  /...for  re- 
gard. 

SATISFY,  SUIT. — The  sign  commonly  used 

for  satisfy  ( P...,)  sometimes  clashes  with 

the  outline  for  suit  (....f  ..).  The  former 

should  be  written  in  full: P.. ...satisfy. 

C 
This  does  not  affect  the  derivatives  of 

satisfy,  which  are  written  in  the  usual 

way:.  P satisfactory,..  P  satisfaction. 

SITUATION,  STATION.— The  outline  given 

22 


for  these  words  by  Mr.  Graham  (.  ...u  ..}  oc- 

\J 

casionally  causes  confusion.  Write Y.. 

for  situation. 

THESE,  THOSE. --Nearly  all  of  the  text- 
books provide  the  same  outline  for  these 
words,  distinguishing  between  them  only 
by  difference  in  position.  When  written 
in  phrases  they  very  frequently  clash. 
The  adoption  of for  these  is  advised. 

TRUTH,  TRUE. — According  to  most  au- 
thorities, these  words  are  represented  by 
the  same  sign.  As  they  are  liable  to 
clash  when  written  out  of  position,  it  is 
advisable  to  write  the  former  in  full:, 
truth. 

YEAR,  NIGHT. --Year  and  night,  as  writ- 

23 


U  *_x 

ten  by  most  authors  (_ year, night), 

sometimes  clash.   By  writing '....for  year 

the  necessary  distinction  is  secured,  and 

phrasing  is  facilitated;  e.  g.  i  .....(. this 

year ,  ^e... .next  year,... .*-*.... one  year, ...^  ...two 
years,..  .<T^,...many  years,....  _L... .several  years 
ago. 


In  this  chapter,  as  has  already  been 
stated,  the  writer  has  endeavored  to  pro- 
vide for  words  which  are  liable  to  con- 
flict outlines  which  do  not  require  the 
use  of  vowels  to  render  them  legible, 
even  when  imperfectly  formed  or  written 
out  of  position.  It  is  believed  that  with 
regard  to  those  words  given  in  the  sub- 

24 


joined  list  this  effort  has  been  success- 
ful. There  are  a  few  words  in  common 
use,  however,  which  do  not  contain  suffi- 
cient stenographic  material  on  which  to 
base  a  distinction  by  means  of  difference 
in  outline,  and  in  such  cases  it  is  nec- 
essary to  resort  to  vocalization.  The 
following  illustrations  exhibit  three 
familiar  instances  of  this  character,  and 
shov/  how  distinction  must  be  made,  in 
cases  where  there  is  danger  of  conflict, 
by  the  insertion  of  a  vowel:.... I  ..at, out; 

A 

C\... very  ,.....^....6  very; ^.keep,.  ~  X... occupy, 

JT~\.copy . 

There  is  still  another  class  of  words 
for  which  it  has  not  been  found  expedient 

25 


to  provide  distinctive  outlines,  but  which 
are  apt  to  clash  when  written  carelessly; 
e.  g.  :....^...from,....V.  . through;. A. .difference, 
...VJ  condition.  Instances  similar  to  those 
just  cited  will  occasionally  occur  in 
practice,  but  by  the  exercise  of  reasona- 
ble care  in  the  formation  of  outlines  and 
by  observing  the  rule  of  position,  con- 
flict can  generally  be  avoided. 

There  are  in  the  list  a  few  outlines 
to  which  no  reference  has  been  made  in 
the  preceding  remarks.  Most  of  these 
have  been  adopted  because  there  seems  to 
be  something  lacking  in  the  old  forms. 
Their  use  is  .not  essential  to  the  integ- 
rity of  the  scheme  herewith  presented. 

26 


LIST  OF  CONFLICTING  WORD-FORMS,  ETC 

i 

a,  an 

can  not 

—  ^ 

account          —  <—  s 

come 

V^ 

after           -^_ 

connect 

V, 

afternoon        —*-, 

connected 

^^ 

^1/ 

afterward       —  *-^ 

connection 

annual          \_p 

erroneous 

\J 

astonish         ^ 

establish 

1 

astonished        J 

established 

..it.. 

astonishment      ) 

establishment 

> 

beheld,  behold   -—6-> 

examine-ation 

\ 

but             -S 

expend 

calculate        —  s 

expended 

*""*- 

can             —  %^ 

expenditure 

27 


^ 

follow          ^-j 

opportunity 

kj 

forenoon 

or 

half             ^ 

paid 

^ 

hereafter         o 

* 
princ  iple—  pal 

, 

him 

recollect 

i 

himself          X| 

recollected 

^.. 

infinite 

recollection 

.-^^-... 

language        .../:. 

regard 

f 

less  than       ..  f  _ 

satisfy 

•  —  " 

my  own 

situation 

% 

never 

these 

—^ 

no  one            \ 

truth 

^ 

no,  sir          C 

until 

^_^ 

nothing 

year 

• 

of  a             ( 

yes 

s 

older            C 

«r  ^ 

yes,  sir 

28 


CAUSES  OF  HESITATION  IN  WRITING  SHORTHAND 


With  the  exception  of  the  injudicious 
use  of  the  principle  of  phrasing,  which 
will  be  discussed  in  the  next  chapter, 
the  greatest  cause  of  hesitation  in  writ- 
ing shorthand  lies  in  the  numerous  unnec- 
essary and  illogical  exceptions  to  the 
rules  relating  to  the  use  of  the  strokes 
for  R  and  L. 

In  the  text-books  the  student  is  told 
to  write  initial  R  upward  in  all  cases 
where  it  is  more  convenient  than  downward 
R,  and  then  in  turning  to  the  shorthand 
exercises  he  finds  such  outlines  as  the 

29 


following:.  ...........  read,  .....  7..  ...redeem,  . 


surae  ,...^T.  ...retail,...:^.  re  turn,  etc.  He  is 
instructed  to  write  the  R-stroke  downward. 
when  preceded  by  an  initial  vowel,  but  is 

\  * 

confounded  by  finding  in  the  shorthand 
illustrations  outlines  like  the  follow- 
ing :./*~/..arrange  5...^  ..arsenic,....-xe7^T..arson, 
artist,...../^.  .....  erroneous  ,_..'  ...ordain, 

oriental,  etc. 

* 
In  the  use  of  the  L-stroke   the  excep- 

tions are  still  more  bewildering.  When  L 
stands  alone  or  commences  a  word  the  rule 
requires  that,  it  be  written  upward,  but 
in  writing  over  the  exercises  the  student 
discovers  many  such  outlines  as  these: 
...  <r...lad  ,...  .4.  .  .lament  ,__£^«  laminate,..^.  .lamp, 


30 


.....^....launch, <r.....led,.....^"T7..  link,... .S^.  lion, 

/"       r         f° 
..X.  load,...'— ...log,.. L. ..London, ..Srr:.  sling,  etc. 

j 

There  is  no  reason  why  any  of  the   ex- 
amples just  given  should  not  be  written 
according  to  the  general  rules  for  the 
use  of  R  and  L,  thus: 
..._'. ...re  ad,     ...^....artist,    ./T7/.launch, 

..redeem,    ..\^--err*oneous  9   (_\ 

presume, ordain, 

.retail,   .X... oriental, 

..return,    ....^\ 


.arrange, 

,   (T^\. lamina te  ,   ...Q... London, 
..arson,     .^r^lamp,      ..^TT^sling. 
Some  of  these  outlines  may  appear  less 
handsome  than  the  old   forms,  but  that  is 


31 


simply  because  the  eye  is  not  accustomed 
to  them.  After  using  them  a  little  while 
it  will  seem  strange  that  they  should 
ever  have  been  written  any  other  way,  and 
the  great  mental  ease  with  which  they  are 
formed  will  amply  compensate  for  any  ap- 
parent loss  on  account  of  the  extra 
stroke  required  in  such  words  as  led,  re- 
deem, return,  etc. 

The  writer  has  been  adopting  these  new 
outlines  gradually,  and  he  still  retains 
the  old  word-sign  for  read.  Any  one  mak- 
ing use  of..._Lfor  read  should  adopt  a  new 
outline  for  the  word  write,  which  in  its 
present  form  (...^LJ  would  clash  with  the 
new  form  for  read.  Write  may  be  repre- 

32 


sented  by.-.'...or...'?L.  By  following  the  sug- 
gestions just  given  very  much  of  the  hes- 
itation incident  to  writing  a  v^ry  diffi- 
cult class  of  words  will  be  removed.  Of 
course  there  are  many  words  which  must  of 
necessity  be  written  contrary  to  rule, 
and  these  will  always  cause  more  or  less 
hesitation,  but  the  principle  herewith 
presented  reduces  that  hesitation  to  a 
minimum. 

One  of  the  most  serious  problems  which 
confronts  the  student  of  shorthand,  and 
one  which  contributes  very  largely  both 
to  the  difficulty  of  writing  and  of  read- 
ing, is  the  question  as  to  the  best  way 
of  indicating  H.  This  problem  has  per- 

33 


haps  been  as  great  a  source  of  contention 
between  rival  authors  as  any  other  one 
feature  of  the  art  of  shorthand.  Many 
ingenious  devices  aiming  to  improve  upon 
the  old  methods  of  representing  H  have 
been  published  during  the  past  thirty 
years,  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  the 
best  of  them  is  any  better  than  the  plan 
set  forth  in  Graham1  s  Handbook.  The  wri,- 
ter  has  therefore  adopted  Mr-.  Graham1  s 
rules,  but  has  modified  them  by  the  addi- 
tion of  the  following:  When  a  word  be- 
ginning with  H  contains  but  one  addition- 
al consonant,  it  is  to  be  written  with 
the  H-stroke  in  all  cases  where  the  junc- 
tion forms  an  acute  or  right  angle. 

34 


principle   is  quite  fully  illustrated  by 
the  following  examples:  .......  .  ......  hip,  heap, 

hop,  .....  ....hob,.  .^\.  .hub,  .........  heat,  hit,  hot, 


./I  .....  hate,  hut,.....^|.....hat,  hoot,  .............  ....heed, 

/I.  -.head,  .....  ^/1...hood,  ..........  hi  tch,.....^y...  hatch, 

.hatchet  ,.../^...hedge  ,...^..huge  ,. 


hush, (....hill,  heel,  haul ,..^(.. .hale,  hell, 

.^L.heath,..../\..Jiove,  etc.  It  will  often 
be  found  advantageous  to  write  words  con- 
taining more  than  two  consonants  in  the 
same  manner,  thus  :...^K....  hot  el,...  /\... haphaz- 
ard, ,.<Ai... haven,  heaven,....  j?O.  hammer,  etc. 
Under  this  modified  rule,  a  word  which 
contains  as  its  second  consonant~...-7^-.  K, 
-rrrrr..G  QT-.-r^.M.  is  written  with  the  H-tick, 
as  :....,^__..hack,....~...hog,...^>...hem.  N  and  NG 

35 


form  an  exception  to  the  rule,  it  being 
more  convenient  to  use  the  aspirate  in 
connection  with  these  strokes  or  to  omit 

the  H  entirely;  e.  g.: hint, ...#.... hunt , 

...w hand  ,..>^... hence  j...^,  Jiang ,.  .s^_jr— .  .hungry , 

..  hanker,  etc.  Most  of  these  forms 
are  longer  than  those  commonly  used  for 
the  same  class  of  words,  but  they  are  un- 
questionably .more  legible.  Mr.  Graham 

writes.-^.... .for  hip,.,>.  .for  hob,....' for  heat, 

etc., — signs  not  at  all  suggestive  of  the 
words  for  which  they  stand.  When  written 

in  full   O hip, ..V\... hob, heat),  his 

forms  can  not  be  as  rapidly  executed  as 
the  outlines  here  recommended. 

Another  cause  of  hesitation  in  writing 

36 


is  the  unphilosophical  method  in  general 
use  of  indicating  the  past  tense  of  reg- 
ular verbs  whereby  the  form  of  the  prim- 
itive word  undergoes  a  change  in  order  to 
produce  the  past  participle.  The  follow- 
ing examples  illustrate  the  old  method: 

..i..  date,..Jt...dated;..r create,...^  .created; 

.^.. freight  ,...~V  freighted; need,."  1. needed; 

...snort,...'  ..snorted;..'   .want,..'  '...wanted; 


wilt,.  ....wilted,  etc.  The  form  of  the 

primitive  word  in  all  such  cases  should 
be  preserved  and  the  past  tense  indicated 
by  simply  adding  the  D-stroke  as  follows: 
-•J._  date, ...  .j| dated; create,  J  created; 

<\. freight  ,...r»i. .freighted;.... need,..J  .needed ; 

.snort  ,_...J..  .snorted;... want  ,....1  ....wanted; 

37 

448495 


wilt,... fl_  wilted.   These  new  forms  are 

quite  as  easily  written  as  the  old,  and 
through  their  use  the  element  of  hesita- 
tion in  the  writing  of  this  class  of 
words  is  entirely  removed. 

This  completes  the  enumeration  of  the 
minor  causes  of  hesitation  in  writing  and 
reading  shorthand.  For  a  consideration 
of  the  most  prolific  source  of  these  dif- 
ficulties the  reader  is  referred  to  the 
next  chapter,  entitled  "Phrase-writing". 


38 


PHRASE-WRITING 


The  value  of  the  principle  of  phrasing 
in  promoting  speed  in  shorthand  writing 
is  so  generally  recognized  that  no  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  its  use  is  necessary. 
While  there  can  be  no  question  that  with- 
in proper  limitations  phrase-writing  is 
conducive  both  to  speed  and  to  legibil- 
ity, it  is  equally  true  that  the  injudi- 
cious use  of  this  principle  causes  more 
hesitation  in  writing  and  difficulty  in 
reading  than  all  other  hindrances  com- 
bined. The  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  to 
point  out  some  of  the  most  flagrant  in- 

39 


stances  of  the  improper  use  of  the  phras- 
ing principle  and  to  suggest  a  few  simple 
rules  which  will  to  a  very  large  extent 
remove  the  causes  of  hesitation  in  the 
formation  of  phrases  and  at  the  same  time 
render  them  perfectly  legible. 

In  treating  of  the  causes  of  hesita- 
tion in  phrase-writing  they  have  been  di- 
vided into  three  classes: 

1.  The  phrasing  of  unfamiliar  words. 

2.  The  indiscriminate  use  of  ticks  in- 
itially and  finally  to  indicate  the  words 
a-n-d  and  the. 

3.  Unnatural  phrasing;  that  is,  chang- 
ing the  form  of  a  word  for  the  purpose  of 
incorporating  it  into  a  phrase. 

40 


Passing  by  the  first  of  these  causes 
for  the  present,  we  come  to  the  second 
cause,  the  indiscriminate  use  of  ticks  to 
indicate  a-n-d  and  the.  The  authors  of 
most  modern  text-books  advocate  the  use 

of  a  tick  written  in  the  direction  of |_._... 

or...^^..to  indicate  a-n-d,  and  a  tick  writ- 
ten in  the  direction  of.....\..., /....or  ../<... 

to  indicate  the.  According  to  many  au- 
thors, these  ticks  may  be  joined  indis- 
criminately to  preceding  and  following 

strokes;  e.  g.: ^....and  by  the,. ...I... and  do 

a,— -<^vr^..and  make  a, L...the  day  the,  etc. 

The  hesitation  caused  by  the  mental  ef- 
fort required  to  determine  in  what  direc- 
tion these  ticks  must  be  written  in  order 

41 


to  join  a  following  stroke  at  the  proper 
angle  outweighs  any  possible  advantage 
which  may  be  claimed  in  support  of  their 
use.  The  examples  just  given  are  more 
rapidly  and  easily  written  with  separate 
signs,  thus: •  .  /  and  by  the,.....]..!  and  do  a, 

.,..<r->^,.t.and  make  a, ...L....the  day  the. 

The  third,  and  undoubtedly  the  great- 
est, cause  of  hesitation  in  phrase-writ- 
ing is  ascribable  to  what  may  be  called 
"unnatural"  phrasing.  A  familiar  example 

of  this  class  of  phrases,  and  one  which 

••' 

well  illustrates  the  point,  is.. i  it  has 

been.  This  phrase  contains  three  ele- 
ments, viz.: I it,...o has,  and..  .Y  . be  en. 

The  first  two  element s, ___]_._. and.... <>.._.,  join 

42 


naturally,  but  in  order  to  make  a  junc- 
tion between. ..  .1. ...  and  ...V..  .it  is  necessary  to 

turn  the  S-circle  to  the  left  of  the I ....... 

thus  making  an  unnatural  phrase.  By  rea- 
son of  its  frequent  use,  resulting  in 
great  familiarity  with  it,  this  phrase 
does  not  cause  much  hesitation,  but  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  nine  out  of  ten  stenog- 
raphers have  at  some  time  in  their  career 
experienced  some  difficulty,  and  conse- 
quent hesitation,  in  determining  on  which 
side  of  the  stroke  the  S-circle  should  be 
turned  in  this  and  similar  phrases. 

As  an  illustration  of  unnatural  phras- 
ing carried  to  an  absurd  extreme,  the 
following  examples  are  taken  from  a  popu- 

43 


lar  phonographic  dictionary:...  ..7.  ......  I  shall 


...it  will  therefore,  .....  j?..jun- 

\  I 

til  they  are  having  ......  /...was  it  therefore, 


..which  are  all  having,....  /....which  they 
are  therefore,  /^..when  it  otherwise,  ....vv... 
you  are  not  therefore.  Perchance  in  the 
ages  yet  to  come  some  genius  may  ap- 
pear, --some  Shakespeare  or  some  Raphael 
of  shorthand,  —  who  will  write  with  fa- 
cility at  high  speed  such  phrases  as 
these,  and  possibly  read  them  when  cold; 
but  the  world  has  not  yet  seen  the  feat 
performed,  —  not  even  by  the  author  of 
the  dictionary  from  which  these  specimens 
were  taken,  if  we  are  to  measure  his  ca- 
pacity for  phrase-writing  by  certain  fac- 

44 


simile  reporting  notes  of  his  printed 
some  years  ago  in  one  of  the  leading  pho- 
nographic magazines.  When  the  man  who 
invented  these  highly  ingenious  but  ut- 
terly impracticable  phrases  forgets  how 
to  write  them  when  following  a  speaker, 
the  conclusion  is  irresistible  that  they 
were  constructed  for  exhibition  purposes 
only,  and  their  use  in  the  future  should 
be  restricted  to  the  objact  for  which 
they  were  devised  and  to  which  they  have 
chiefly  been  devoted  in  the  past,  —  to 
show  the  brevity  of  the  system  to  which 
they  pertain  as  compared  with  any  and  all 
other  systems. 

With  the  object  of  simplifying  phrase- 

45 


ography  so  that  hesitation  in  writing  and 
uncertainty  in  reading  shall  be  practi- 
cally eliminated,  the  following  rules 
have  been  adopted: 

1.  Phrase  only  familiar  words. 

2.  Discard  the   indiscriminate  use  of 
ticks  to  indicate  a-n-d  and  the. 

3.  Do  not  change  the  construction  of  a 
word-form  for   the  purpose  of  making  a 
phrase. 

The  first  rule  is  so  simple  and  the 
advantages  of  its  observance  so  obvious 
that  it  requires  no  explanation. 

The  second  rule  is  one  of  great  impor- 
tance. As  has  been  remarked,  the  use  of 
ticks  to  indicate  a-n-d  and  the  initially 

46 


and  finally  is  the  cause  of  much  hesita- 
tion in  writing.  This  is  more  particu- 
larly true  in  the  case  of  a-n-d  joined  to 
a  following  stroke.  To  obviate  this  dif- 
ficulty, the  principle  of  indicating  and 
by  a  tick,  either  initially  or  finally, 
should  be  abandoned.  The  often  recur- 
ring and  useful  phrases,— ^....and  the  ,...-i...and 
a-n,  are  exceptions  to  this  rule,  and  may 
be  written  in  the  old  way,  as  indicated. 
In  all  other  cases  and  must  be  indicated 
by  the  dot,  thus :....;...  and. 

A  and  an  may  be  joined  to  a  following 
stroke  at  an  acute  or  right  angle,  but 
must  never  be  written  horizontally  or  out 
of  position;  e.  g.:^-j v-.a  copy, -\?^*.. a  man, 

47 


a  writer,.  ..y a  year, ^.  ..an  hour, 

..fv..a  number, h-...a  trial.   It  may  be  used 

finally  in  the  case  already  noted  (  .->  ..and 
a-n) ,  and  in  a  few  familiar  phrases  it 

may  be  used  medially;  e.  g.  :....^-r^r-r^.  as  a 

^^ 
matter  of  course, L in  a  short  time, 

^S  in  an  hour,....^?..  .in  a  year. 

The  must  never  be  indicated  by  an  ini- 
tial tick.    In  all  other  cases  it  may  be 
indicated  according  to  the  rules  given  in 
Graham's  Handbook;  e.  g. :...?:. .and  the,...  ...at 

the, .A...  are  the  ,....^..  ..for  the,.,  '..give  the, 

...of  the,...  .on  the,...  ..or  the,...V- ..sup- 
pose the,  ^in  the  matter,  etc. 

The  third  rule,  which  relates  to  "un- 
natural" phrasing,  requires  special  con- 

48 


sideration.  There  are  two  kinds  of  un- 
natural phrases,  --f  irst  ,  those  in  which 
the  form  of  the  first  word  is  modified  to 
indicate  the  succeeding  word  or  words, 
and,  second,  those  in  which  the  forms  of 
the  individual  words  of  which  they  are 
composed  undergo  a  complete  change.  The 
following  are  familiar  examples  of  the 


first  class  i....^^..  at  all  times,.  ....f  _____  at  all 

<£• 

events,  ...............  in  order,..  ..^"^..in  reference, 


in  our  own,  etc.  Many  of  the  phrases 
of  this  class  are  very  useful,  and  they 
occur  so  frequently  that  little  or  no 
hesitation  is  experienced  in  writing 
them.  In  this  case,  therefore,  a  strict 
adherence  to  the  rule  is  not  desirable, 

49 


as  it  would  preclude  the  use  of  a  large 
number  of  phrases  which  have  been  uni- 
versally adopted  by  phonographers;  but  by 
applying  the  rule  to  a  reasonable  extent 
one  of  the  principal  causes  of  uncer- 
tainty in  phrase-writing  will  be  removed. 
The  following  examples  of  phrases  of  the 
second  class  are  taken  from  Graham's 

r 

Handbook: .....all  its,....; all  their  own, 

J>...h-as  it,__  \  ...h-as  there, is  it,..    is 


( 
there  ,_ .with  it, with  all  its, 


with  their  own,  etc.  This  method  of 
phrasing  can  not  be  too  stro-ngly  con- 
demned. It  is  illogical  in  principle  and 
unsafe  in  practice,  and  is  one  of  the 
worst  stumbling -"blocks  in  the  way  of  the 

50 


beginner.  So  far  as  it  relates  to  this 
class  of  phrases,  the  rule  should  be 
strictly  followed.  Of  course  there  is  an 
apparent  loss  in  its  observance,  on  ac- 
count of  the  few  additional  strokes  re- 
quired to  write  separate  outlines,  but 
this  apparent  loss  is  entirely  overcome 
by  the  great  gain  resulting  from  the  men- 
tal relief  which  one  experiences  in  dis- 
carding a  principle  so  productive  of  hes- 
itation and  uncertainty. 


51 


THE  ACQUIREMENT  OF  SPEED 


The  shorthand  magazines  devote  consid- 
erable space  to  a  presentation  of  the 
views  of  numerous  contributors  as  to  the 
best  means  of  acquiring  speed  in  short- 
hand. (  One  class  of  writers  contend  with 
much  plausibility  that  all  that  is  neces- 
sary is  for  the  student  to  select  an  art- 
icle of  a  thousand  or  fifteen  hundred 
words,  and,  after  putting  it  into  the 
best  shorthand  at  his  command,  to  write 
and  rewrite  it  from  dictation  until  he 
attains  the  highest  rate  of  speed  of 
which  he  is  capable.  Another  class  of 
writers  advocate,  with  equal  plausibil- 
ity, the  writing  (from  the  dictation  of 
kind  and  indulgent  friends)  of  such  works 
as  Macaulay's  History  of  England  and  Gib- 
bon's Rome,  with  an  occasional  chapter  or 
two  from  Plutarch's  Lives  by  way  of  re- 
laxation. The  best  method  of  practice  is 
probably  that  which  combines  in  reasona- 
ble proportions  these  two  plans,  with 
the  modification  of  selecting  for  both 
classes  of  dictation  the  kind  of  matter 
which  the  student  is  likely  to  encounter 
in  actual  work  when  he  becomes  a  practi- 
cal stenographer.  The  first  plan  men- 


52 


tioned  is  particularly  effective  in  pro- 
ducing a  high  degree  of  manual  dexterity, 
while  the  second  cultivates  mental  alert- 
ness and  provides  a  fund  of  general  in- 
formation, without  which  the  reporter, 
no  matter  how  proficient  he  may  become  as 
a  note-taker,  will  never  be  more  than  a 
mere  machine. 

If  the  student,  at  the  outset,  will 
adopt  the  simple  method  of  writing  advo- 
cated in  this  book  (not  necessarily 
adopting  the  specific  modifications  here- 
in presented,  but  yet  following  the  gen- 
eral line  of  simplification  recommended), 
he  will  find  much  less  difficulty  in  ac- 
quiring verbatim  speed  than  he  would  en- 
counter by  a  strict  adherence  to  the 
brain-racking  incongruities  of  the  text- 
books. 

Finally,  no  one  should  allow  himself 
to  be  persuaded  that  there  is  any  "speed 
secret"  now  on  the  market  which  will  ob- 
viate the  necessity  for  hard  and  persist- 
ent practice  in  order  to  attain  that  high 
rank  in  the  profession  which  is  the  goal 
of  every  conscientious  shorthand  stu- 
dent's ambition. 


53 


SELECTED  MATTER  AND  SHORTHAND  NOTES 


The  seven  pages  next  succeeding  are 
devoted  to  shorthand  written  by  the  au- 
thor for  the  purpose  of  showing  the  prac- 
tical application  of  the  suggestions  and 
modifications  presented  in  this  work. 
The  subject  matter  consists  of  extracts 
from  a  very  valuable  article  by  Mr.  David 
Wolfe  Brown,  entitled  "The  Needless  Bur- 
dens of  the  Modern  Learner,"  which  ap- 
peared in  the  January  number  of  The  Sten- 
ographer, and  the  use  of  which  has  been 
kindly  granted  by  the  editor  of  that  mag- 
azine and  by  Mr.  Brown.  The  key  to  these 
notes  begins  on  page  63. 

To  show  the  application  of  this  sim- 
plified method  to  actual  reporting,  there 
is  exhibited  on  page  62  a  reproduction  of 
some  fac-simile  notes  taken  from  the 
note-book  of  the  author.  The  key  appears 
on  pages  75  and  76. 

With  this  feature  "The  Missing  Link  in 
Shorthand"  is  brought  to  a  close,  and  with 
the  hope  that  he  has  given  to  the  learner 
the  means  of  lightening  his  labor  in  the 
acquirement  of  a  practical  knowledge  of 
shorthand,  the  author  now  gives  way  to  his 
contributors.  (See  page  77  et  seq.) 


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62 


THE  NEEDLESS  BURDENS  OF  THE  MODERN  LEARNER 


David  Wolfe  Brown 


"Surely  there  must  be  'something  rotten 
in  the  State  of  Denmark1  when  the  short- 
hand student  of  to-day  is  expected  to  ab- 
sorb, as  a  preparation  for  mere  amanuensis 
work,  vastly  more  of  text-book  techni- 
calities than  Murphy  has  found  necessary 
in  all  the  difficult  reporting  of  forty 
years." — World's  Congress  Essay. 


PITY  the  shorthand  student  of  to- 
day. When  I  see  him  struggling 
under  heavy  tasks  of  which  I ,  as  a 
learner,  knew  nothing — when  I  find 
him  faithfully  doing  his  best  to  master 
bewildering  text  -  book  technicalities 
which,  if  they  had  been  placed  before  me 
as  the  condition  of  shorthand  success, 
would  have  disheartened  me  and  possibly 
broken  me  down — would,  certainly  have  ad- 
ded months  and  years  to  my  term  of  study, 
and  probably  have  shut  me  out  from  the 
profession  to  which  I  aspired--!  ask  my- 
self, "Why  should  his  lot,  as  a  student, 


63 


be  so  much  harder  than  mine  was?"  For 
years  I  have  seen  the  mass  of  text-book 
matter  growing  and  growing.  As  this  has 
gone  on,  I  have  not  seen  learners  become 
more  accurate  or  more  rapid  shorthand 
writers,  I  have  seen  new  abbreviating 
principles  of  dubious  and  controverted 
utility  added  to  this  or  that  "system" 
without  approval  from  the  great  body  of 
professional  shorthand  writers.  I  have 
seen  "reporting  word-signs,"  formerly 
numbering  but  a  few  hundred,  swelled  to 
thousands,  with  which  the  learner  is  told 
he  must  "acquire  the  utmost  familiarity." 
(A.  J.  Graham.)  I  have  seen  phrasing 
principles  analyzed  and  codified  with 
terrifying  elaboration,  as  if,  in  a  prac- 
tical and  largely  imitative  art  like 
shorthand,  nothing  could  be  learned  ex- 
cept by  means  of  abstract  propositions. 
Phraseograms  (of  which  formerly  a  modest 
list  of  a  dozen  pages  sufficed)  I  have 
seen  multiplied,  by  at  least  one  author 
(Graham) ,  to  the  number  of  sixty  thou- 
sand, which  the  faithful  student  is  urged 
to  "write  repeatedly  from  dictation!"  I 
have  seen  placed  in  the  hands  of  almost 
every  student  some  ponderous  "phonograph- 
ic dictionary,"  so  "complete"  as  not  to 
omit  extremely  difficult  words  like  pay 
and  doe  or  extremely  useful  words  like 
mundivagant  and  hippocentaur!  And  lest 


64 


the  learner  should  acquire  some  independ- 
ent ability  to  apply  word-building  prin- 
ciples for  himself,  he  is  urged  by  one 
author  to  consult  this  vade  mecum  "for 
the  form  of  every  word  about  which  he  is 
not  certain,"  while  another  author  (Elias 
Longley)  solemnly  insists  that  the  study 
of  his  dictionary  is  "as  important  as  the 
study  of  the  Reporter's  Guide." 

As  the  simplicity  of  the  art  has  thus 
given  place  to  complexity,  as  the  learn- 
er's task  has  been  thus  unreasonably  and 
cruelly  enlarged,  I  have  seen  the  natural 
results  ensue.  The  failures  among  would- 
be  shorthand  writers  have  grown  propor- 
tionately more  and  more  numerous;  the 
time  required  for  even  moderate  success 
has  doubled,  trebled,  quadrupled;  a  high 
degree  of  reporting  skill  has  been  placed 
beyond  the  reach  of  all  except  a  favored 
few--men  and  women  of  rare  talents,  coup- 
led with  unconquerable  tenacity  of  pur- 
pose, and  even  these  few  succeeding  most 
often  by  breaking  loose  in  some  measure 
from  text-book  trammels,  and  flouting  the 
advice  of  authors  who  prescribe  for 
struggling  students  tasks  which  they 
themselves,  "veterans"  though  they  be, 
have  never  mastered./ 

Must  this  thing  go  on  forever?  Is  pho- 
nography never  to  be  what  its  original 
promulgators  intended  it  should  be — an 


65 


art  for  the  people?  Is  its  practice  to 
be  confined  to  persons  having  exceptional 
qualifications  of  mind  and  hand?  I  do 
not  believe  it.  I  think  I  see  signs  that 
a  revolution  has  already  begun,  by  which 
phonography  is  to  be  first  simplified  and 
then  popularized — simplified  not  merely 
by  easier  methods  of  presentation,  but  by 
sloughing  off  the  excrescences  which  have 
overgrown  it — by  throwing  to  the  winds 
many  of  the  so-called  " improvements"  over 
which  rival  tinkerers  have  so  fiercely 
contended — by  reducing  grammalogue-lists 
and  phrase-lists  to  a  minimum,  and  by 
laying  voluminous  "shorthand  dictiona- 
ries" on  the  shelf,  substituting  for  them 
such  a  thorough  drill  on  rudimentary 
word-building  principles  as  shall  teach 
every  student  to  do  his  own  phonographic 
thinking. 

But  "needless  burdens"  must  be  stated 
in  plain,  explicit  words — not  in  the  form 
of  an  undiscriminating  growl,  for  the 
mere  growler  can  never  rise  to  the  dig- 
nity of  a  reformer.  To  begin  at  the  be- 
ginning, one  difficulty  which  the  short- 
hand student  of  to-day  must  grapple  with 
before  he  even  begins  the  study  of  his 
chosen  art  is  the  difficulty  of  deciding 
(necessarily  in  a  blind,  incompetent, 
haphazard  way)  the  conflicting  claims  of 
rival  systems.  Why  this  conflict  and  ri- 


66 


valry?  Because  no  one  of  the  system-mak- 
ers or  system-mongers  is  willing  that  the 
learner  shall  acquire  simply  those  well- 
tested  and  all-sufficient  principles  of 
the  phonographic  art  which  have  been  ac- 
cepted by  the  common  judgment  of  all  com- 
petent phonographers .  On  the  contrary, 
each  would-be  leader  of  the  confiding 
student  exalts  into  undeserved  importance 
certain  isms  of  his  own  invention  or 
adoption,  which  he  insists  are  essential 
to  stenographic  success,  and  which  he  ad- 
vocates the  more  vehemently  because  other 
would-be  leaders  are  claiming  equal  or 
superior  value  for  their  peculiar  and  op- 
posing isms. 

And  under  the  present  circumstances, 
whichever  "system"  the  learner  may  se- 
lect, it  must  be  encumbered  with  features 
which  are  the  subject  of  differing  opin- 
ions and  which  are  used  by  only  a  limited 
number  of  phonographic  writers.  Every 
student,  nolens  volens,  must  learn,  along 
with  matter  which  represents  the  univers- 
al thought  of  the  shorthand  profession, 
other  matter  representing  the  thought  of 
only  a  clique  or  a  sect;  matter  the  value 
of  which  is  yet  in  controv.ersy ;  matter 
which  is  passing  through  the  stage  of  ex- 
periment (if  indeed  experiment  by  unbi- 
ased writers  has  not  decided  against  it); 
matter  which  is  at  best  of  only  partial 


67 


adoption,  opposed  by  large  numbers  of 
shorthand  writers  as  earnestly  as  it  is 
advocated-  by  others.  Here  is  one  burden 
(great,  but  not  the  greatest)  imposed 
upon  the  modern  learner:  Having  settled 
the  choice  of  a  system,  he  must  master, 
not  only  the  indispensable  and  generally- 
accepted  features  of  the  art,  but,  , be- 
sides all  these,  a  mass  of  controverted 
and  experimental  principles  or  expedi- 
ents, sanctioned  by  one  author,  rejected 
by  others.  And  this,  too,  notwithstand- 
ing each  of  the  leading  authors  (Isaac 
Pitman,  Benn  Pitman,  Graham,  Munson)  has 
admitted  in  cold  print  the  ample  suffi- 
ciency of  the  art,  minus  the  boasted  "im- 
provements" >  for  every  reporting  purpose. 
Surely  this  burden  of  the  learner--the 
necessity  of  carrying  on  his  back  or 
around  his  neck  the  mere  isms  of  his  se- 
lected author—is  a  needless  one,  though 
at  present  unescapable. 

•  •  •  • 

Amid  this  wrangling  of  factions,  if 
any  man  cares  to  know  where  I  stand,  he 
is  welcome  to  the  information.  I  have 
adopted  Isaac  Pitman1 s  Ninth  Edition, 
which  at  the  time  of  its  approval  by  the 
Phonetic  Council  all  phonographers  in 
England  and  America  cordially  accepted. 
This  Ninth  Edition  includes  the  most  use- 
ful parts  of  every  "improved"  system 


68 


which  has  since  been  put  forth;  it  gives 
to  every  such  "system"  the  vitality  and 
reporting  capacity  for  which  loudly- 
vaunted  "improvements"  too  often  receive 
unmerited  credit.  But  I  have  not  clung 
to  the  Ninth  Edition  as  faultless,  com- 
plete, and  unchangeable,  like  a  revela- 
tion from  Heaven.  I  have  added  to  it, 
not  "individual  innovations"  of  my  own, 
but  every  improvement  which,  since  the 
action  of  the  Phonetic  Council,  has  re- 
ceived (though  not  by  any  formal  vote) 
the  general  approval  of  all  practical 
writers.  I  have  welcomed  every  device 
which  constitutes  a  part  of  all  modern 
phonographic  systems.  In  this  way,  for 
instance,  I  engraft  upon  the  Ninth  Edi- 
tion the  f  and  v  hook  with  its  accompany- 
ing enlargement  of  the  shn  hook-,  and  also 
the  lengthening  of  curved  consonants  to 
add  tr  and  dr.  While  I  thus  incorporate 
into  my  system  every  improvement  which  by 
the  verdict  of  the  reporting  profession 
at  large  has  established  its  right  to 
live,  and  while  I  exclude  from  my  system 
every  innovation  which  is  as  yet  merely 
individual,  experimental,  and  of  but  par- 
tial adoption,  do  I  not  build  upon  broad 
and  catholic  ground,  above  the  miasmatic 
air  of  sects  and  cliques,  a  platform  sol- 
id and  strong,  upon  which  every  phonog- 
rapher  desiring  to  attain  "unity"  in  the 


69 


only  practicable  way  may  firmly  stand? 
This  is  no  personal  platform.  Those  who 
may  stand  on  it  need  wear  no  man's  col- 
lar. If  "unity"  is  to  be  postponed  till 
the  world  bows  to  a  "standard"  prescribed 
by  a  single  mind,  the  day  of  "unity"  will 
never  dawn. 

If,  standing  on  this  platform,  I  am  to 
be  charged  by  Mr.  Longley  and  others  with 
writing  an  "antiquated  system" — if  any  of 
the  wrangling  stenographic  factions 
should  fling  at  me  the  epithet  "old 
fogy",  I  retort:  "Gentlemen,  the  innova- 
tions you  are  undertaking  to  introduce 
upon  your  own  personal  responsibility  may 
be  of  great  value  in  your  eyes,  but  they 
have  not  become  a  part  of  catholic,  cos- 
mopolitan phonography.  You  can  not  even 
agree  among  yourselves.  The  value  of 
each  one  of  your  proposed  "improvements" 
is  still  controverted,  ably  and  earnestly 
controverted;  no  one  of  them  has  passed 
from  the  stage  of  experiment  into  that  of 
general  adoption.  I  agree  heartily  with 
each  of  you--in  condemning  the  "individ- 
ual innovations"  of  the  others!  Stand 
back,  then,  with  your  dubious  "improve- 
ments", as  to  the  merits  of  which  you  can 
not  agree,  and  which,  after  years  of  ad- 
vocacy and  experiment,  have  failed  to 
demonstrate  to  the  profession  at  large 
their  right  to  exist.  Cosmopolitan  short- 


70 


hand  has  no  room  for  the  hobbies  of  indi- 
viduals. Remove  your  needless  obstruc- 
tions from  the  pathway  of  learners.  Go 
on,  if  you  will,  with  your  experimenta- 
tion and  agitation;  make  converts,  if  you 
can;  bring  the  whole  world,  if  possible, 
to  your  way  of  thinking.  But  do  not  as- 
sume that  your  case  is  won,  while  the  is- 
sue is  still  in  controversy;  and  do  not 
force  upon  learners  what  has  not  yet  be- 
come a  part  of  the  phonography  of  the 
world. 

Eliminating  from  the  curriculum  of  the 
student  all  controverted  and  merely  ex- 
perimental principles,  how  long  a  step  we 
take  for  his  relief!  If  this  work  of 
elimination  gave  us  no  other  gain  than 
reducing  by  almost  one-half  the  number  of 
the  ever-puzzling  "hooks",  how  much  we 
thereby  lessen  the  pupilfs  liability  to 
get  "muddled"!  Surely  abbreviating  rules 
must  have  been  multiplied  unduly  when  a 
distinguished  text-book  maker  finds  occa- 
sion to  apologize  for  his  inability  to 
apply  his  own  rules  in  following  a  speak- 
er! I  refer  to  the  fac-simile  notes  of 
Mr.  Elias  Longley  (Shorthand  Review,  Au- 
gust, 1892),  in  connection  with  which  the 
writer  confesses  that  the  notes  "are  not 
written  exactly  in  accordance  with  his 
Reporter1 s  Guide,"  but  pleads  the  excuse 
that  "in  the  haste  of  following  a  speaker 


71 


one  can  not  always  conform  to  his  own 
rules!"  Why  coldly  frame  in  the  library 
rules  which  ooze  away  in  the  heat  of  ac- 
tual work?  Must  the  tyro  waste  his  time 
and  strength  in  trying  to  acquire  rules 
which  are  "too  many"  for  his  teacher,  and 
this  teacher,  too,  a  gentleman  who  an- 
nounces himself  in  his  advertisements  as 
having  been  "for  twenty-five  years  a 
practical  verbatim  reporter  and  teacher 
of  the  phonographic  art?"  The  sad  day 
has  come  when  shorthand  students  are  ex- 
pected to  acquire  more  than  the  authors 
of  their  chosen  text-books  have  mastered! 
"Ye  lade  men  with  burdens  grievous  to  be 
borne;  and  ye  yourselves  touch  not  the 
burden  with  one  of  your  fingers." 

Another  burden  of  the  shorthand  stu- 
dent must  not  be  forgotten.  Too  many  of 
the  "reporting  expedients"  which  he 
spends  months  in  acquiring  tempt  him  to 
seek  brevity  by  dubious  and  perilous 
methods.  Expedients  admitted  to  be  some- 
times dangerous  (the  danger  needing  to  be 
recognized  and  guarded  against  in  the 
midst  of  actual  note-taking)  are  recom- 
mended to  the  student,  and  he  is  expect- 
ed to  apply  them,  with  no  guide  but  his 
own  inexperience. 

.         •         •         • 

The  student  who  follows  such  instruc- 
tions toils  to  learn  rules  and  expedients 


72 


which  are  highly  useful  in  every  case — 
except  where  he  may  discover  from  the 
context  at  the  moment  of  writing  that 
they  must  be  avoided  as  dangerous!  Do 
careful,  conscientious  reporters,  whose 
professional  capital  is  their  character 
for  accuracy  as  well  as  speed,  who  make 
records  on  which  property  and  reputation 
and  life  in  many  cases  depend — do  such 
men  indulge  in  hazardous  "reporting  expe- 
dients", trusting  to  some  happy  inspira- 
tion to  give  warning  of  the  danger  at  the 
moment  of  writing,  or  "trusting  to  memory 
and  the  context"  to  carry  them  through 
when  the  ordeal  of  reading  comes?  It  can 
not  be.  Such  men  know  that  the  hurry  of 
note-taking  allows  no  time  for  the  detec- 
tion of  stenographic  pitfalls,  and  that 
methods  of  writing  which  are  sometimes 
unsafe  must  be  avoided  always.  "Reporting 
expedients"  which,  to  save  a  pen-stroke 
or  a  pen-lift,  would  make  the  reporter's 
record  the  plaything  of  "memory  and  con- 
text," do  not  belong  to  the  shorthand  of 
practical  life  as  written  by  practical, 
painstaking,  conscientious  men;  they  are 
simply  a  species  of  book  shorthand,  of 
which  the  modern  learner  is  the  victim, 
and  which  makes  more  heavy  his  "needless 
burdejis"  .--The  Stenographer,  published  by 
Francis  H.  Hemperley,  Sixth  and  Chestnut 
streets,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


73 


NOTE. — The  foregoing  selection  was 
written  by  the  author  of  this  book,  in 
accordance  with  the  modifications  advo- 
cated t>y  him.  In  one  or  two  instances 
he  inadvertently  used  a  novelty  with 
which  he  has  been  experimenting  for  some 
time,  namely,  the  lengthening  of  P,  K, 
and  Ray  to  add  either  "ted"  or  "tr";  for 

instance  :..L^TTT:..conducted-or,  .1 _. directed - 

or  ,.£—r—..  elected- or,.... -^^rr-r.^pro  tec  ted-or, 
adopted-er,.. <-?/.. imported-er.  It  is 
a  very  useful  and  apparently  safe  expedi- 
ent, but  the  writer  is  not  yet  ready  to 
recommend  it. 


74 


PAGE  PROM  NOTE-BOOK  OF  SAMUEL  C.  DUNHAM 


Have  you  any  suggestions  to  make  as 
to  any  different  or  better  method  of  sup- 
ply or  distribution  of  the  Record?  I 
have  not.  I  have  been  so  busy  since  I 
have  been  connected  with  the  office,  in 
the  preparation  of  volumes  for  publica- 
tion and  in  carrying  them  through  the 
press,  that  I  have  not  been  able  to  give 
much  attention  to  the  body  of  beneficia- 
ries, and  it  would  be  a  little — I  would 
have  to  have  the  co-operation  of  Members 
of  Congress,  I  imagine,  to  make  any  in- 
telligent examination  of  it. 

Do  you  not  think  it  would  be  well,  by 
some  such  process  as  this,  to  ascertain 
whether  these  valuable  books  are  being 
wasted  or  properly  distributed—communi- 
cate through  the  Postoffice  Department 
with  every  postmaster  to  whose  office 
these  books  go,  letting  the  Postoffice 
(Department)  make  it  official  from  them, 
and  let  the  postmaster  make  inquiry  as  to 
whether  these  books  are  being  received  by 
the  parties  designated,  and  if  not,  by 
whom  they  are  received,  and  whether  sets 
are  being  kept  intact  and  together--donf t 
you  think  that  would  be  a  good  idea?  I 
think  it  would. 


75 


The  impression  obtains  that  the  list 
of  names  furnished  by  Members  of  the  47th 
Congress  is  kept  secret  by  the  War  De- 
partment. Is  this  true?  No,  sir.  I  re- 
gard the  list  of  beneficiaries  in  any 
particular  district 

(Extract  from  statement  of  Maj .  George 
B.  Davis,  U.S.A.,  Chief  of  the  Board  of 
Publication  of  the  Official  Records  of 
the  Rebellion,  before  the  Committee  on 
Printing  of  the  United  States  Senate, 
April  22,  1891.) 


76 


SHORTHAND  CONTRIBUTIONS 

AND 
FAC-SIMILE  REPORTING  NOTES 


SHORTHAND  CONTRIBUTIONS  AND  FAC-SIMILE  RE- 
PORTING NOTES 


The  remaining  pages  of  this  volume  are 
devoted  to  the  presentation  of  an  exceed- 
ingly interesting  and  valuable  collection 
of  contributions  relating  to  the  subject 
of  shorthand  and  shorthand  reporting  from 
the  official  reporters  of  Congress  and 
other  stenographers  of  national  reputa- 
tion, followed  by  an  exhibition  of  fac- 
simile reporting  notes  taken  from  the 
note-books  of  three  of  the  foremost  sten- 
ographers in  the  United  States. 

The  contributions,  all  of  which  appear 
in  the  handwriting  of  their  respective 
authors,  and  which  have  been  specially 
prepared  for  this  work,  begin  with  a  spec- 
imen of  the  writing  of  Mr.  D.  P.  Murphy, 
who  has  been  connected  with  the  Senate  as 
one  of  its  reporters  since  December, 
1848,  and  who  since  March,  1873,  has  been 
the  Official  Reporter  of  Debates  for  that 
body.  The  key  to  his  notes  appears  on 
page  110. 

The  next  contribution,  entitled  "Men- 
tal Processes  of  Shorthand  Reporting,"  is 
by  Mr.  Theo.  F.  Shuey,  who  has  been  a 


79 


member  of  the  Senate  corps  since  Decem- 
ber, 1868,  and  since  the  death  of  Mr.  J. 
J.  Murphy,  in  1874,  the  Principal  Assist- 
ant of  Mr.  D.  F.  Murphy.  The  key  to  his 
notes  is  given  on  page  111. 

The  third  article,  entitled  "The  Re- 
quirements of  a  Reporter,"  is  from  the 
'pen  of  Mr.  E.  V.  Murphy,  vho  has  been  as- 
sociated with  his  brother  for  34  years  in 
reporting  the  proceedings  of  the  Senate. 
The  key  to  his  notes  will  be  found  on 
page  113. 

In  the  fourth  contribution  Mr.  H.  J. 
Gensler,  a  member  of  the  Senate  corps 
since  1866,  gives  a  list  of  phrases  used 
by  Senate  reporters,  which  will  be  found 
very  convenient  in  parliamentary  report- 
ing. The  key  appears  on  page  114. 

"Rate  of  Speaking  in  the  Senate"  is  the 
title  of  the  next  article,  furnished  by 
Mr.  Dan.  B.  Lloyd,  who  joined  the  Senate 
corps  in  the  fall  of  1877.  The  key  is 
given  on  page  116. 

The  contributions  from  the  Senate  re- 
porters are  brought  to  a  close  by  an  art- 
icle on  "The  Difficulties  of  Verbatim 
Reporting,"  by  Mr.  Milton  W.  Blumenberg, 
who  became  a  member  of  the  corps  at  the 
beginning  of  the  present  year,  and  who  is 
the  youngest  stenographer  connected  with 
the  official  reporting  of  Congress.  The 
key  to  his  notes  is  given  on  page  117. 


80 


Mr.  David  Wolfe  Brown,  since  1864  one 
of  the  Reporters  of  Debates  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  and  since  the  death  of 
Mr.  McElhone,  in  June,  1890,  the  senior 
member  of  the  corps,  leads  the  contribu- 
tors from  the  House  end  of  the  Capitol 
with  a  letter  in  which  he  gives  some  val- 
uable suggestions  and  cautions  to  young 
phonographers,  a  key  to  which  appears  on 
page  120. 

The  next  contribution  is  entitled  "A 
Composite  Shorthand  System,"  by  Mr.  John 
H.  White,  who  was  appointed  to  a  position 
on  the  House  corps  in  1878  by  Speaker 
Randall.  The  key  to  his  notes  is  given 
on  page  123. 

Mr.  Andrew  Devine,  for  11  years  an  Of- 
ficial Stenographer  to  Committees  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  since  1885 
a  member  of  the  corps  of  Official  Report- 
ers of  Debates  for  that  body,  next  gives 
an  interesting  letter  in  which  he  states 
some  facts  not  generally  known  about  the 
invention  of  the  talking-machine.  The 
key  begins  on  page  124. 

"The  House  of  Representatives"  is  the 
title  of  the  contribution  of  Mr.  A.  C. 
Welch,  for  two  or  three  years  an  Official 
Stenographer  to  Committees  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  but  since  August, 
1888,  a  Reporter  of  Debates.  The  key  to 
his  notes  will  be  found  on  page  127. 


81 


Mr.  Fred  Irland,  the  junior  member  of 
the  House  corps, who  received  his  appoint- 
ment in  1890,  contributes  an  article  on 
"The  Use  of  the  Phrasing  Principle."  The 
key  is  given  on  page  128. 

Mr.  Geo.  C.  Lafferty,  who  has  been  an 
Official  Stenographer  to  Committees  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  since  April, 
1886,  next  furnishes  a  sketch  entitled 
"The  Joys  of  an  Official  Reporter  to 
Committees,"  the  key  to  which  is  present- 
ed on  page  130. 

The  contributions  from  Congressional 
reporters  conclude  with  a  few  words  on 
"Committee  Reporting,"  by  Mr.  W.  J.  Ke- 
hoe,  who  became  an  Official  Stenographer 
to  Committees  of  the  House  in  1888.  The 
key  to  his  notes  will  be  found  on  page 
131. 

Following  this  splendid  collection  of 
autographic  shorthand,  which  embraces  a 
contribution  from  every  official  stenog- 
rapher in  both  branches  of  Congress,  we 
have  a  letter  from  Mr.  E.  D.  Easton,  the 
official  stenographer  of  the  Guiteau  and 
Star  Route  trials,  but  now  retired  from 
the  active  pursuit  of  the  profession,  in 
which  he  tells  who  were  "The  First  Users 
of  the  Graphophone. "  The  key  to  his  notes 
is  given  on  page  133. 

This  feature  of  the  stenographic  exhi- 
bit is  completed  by  a  communication  from 


82 


Mr.  Eugene  Davis,  one  of  the  most  accom- 
plished stenographers  in  the  country,  and 
formerly  reporter  of  the  New  York  Asso- 
ciated Press  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate, 
in  which  he  describes  the  methods  of 
press  reporting  in  that  body.  The  key  to 
his  notes  appears  on  page  135. 

We  next  present  a  page  of  the  report- 
ing notes  of  Mr.  Charles  Flowers,  of  De- 
troit, Mich.  Mr.  Flowers  was  for  many 
years  the  leading  court  reporter  of  the 
West,  and  acquired  a  national  reputation 
as  the  most  accomplished  exponent  of  Gra- 
ham's Standard  Phonography  in  the  world. 
He  was  the  father  of  the  law  providing 
for  stenographers  in  the  courts  of  Michi- 
gan, and  was  appointed  official  stenog- 
rapher of  the  Recorder's  Court  of  Detroit 
in  1869,  which  position  he  held  until 
1880,  when  he  resigned  to  take  up  the 
practice  of  the  law,  in  which  profession 
he  has  attained  eminent  success.  The 
page  of  Mr,  Flowers1  notes  given  herewith 
is  from  his  report  of  the  argument  of 
Hon.  Wm.  C.  Maybury  in  the  case  of  The 
People  vs.  Hugh  Peoples,  a  noted  murder 
trial  which  occurred  in  Detroit  in  1881, 
and  in  which  Mr.  Flowers  assisted  Mr. 
Fred  Irland,  the  official  stenographer  of 
the  trial.  The  key  is  given  on  page  139. 

Following  the  notes  of  Mr.  Flowers  is 
a  page  of  the  reporting  notes  of  Mr.  Geo. 


83 


N.  Hillman,  the  accomplished  official 
stenographer  of  St.  Paul,  Minn.  Mr. 
Hillman  has  been  actively  engaged  in 
court  and  legislative  reporting  in  Minne- 
sota since  1874,  where  he  has  attained  an 
enviable  reputation  for  rapidity  and  ac- 
curacy. The  key  to  his  notes  appears  on 
page  141. 

This  work  is  brought  to  a  close  with  a 
page  of  the  reporting  notes  of  the  late 
Joseph  E.  Lyons,  who  was  probably  the 
most  rapid  writer  of  beautiful  shorthand 
that  ever  lived.  As  this  remarkable 
stenographer  was  but  little  known  outside 
of  the  State  where  he  practiced  his  pro- 
fession, it  is  thought  that  a  brief 
sketch  of  his  career  may  prove  of  inter- 
est. He  was  born  in  the  city  of  New  York 
August  23,  1857,  and  graduated  at  the  age 
of  13  from  the  Moore  Street  Grammar 
School,  and  immediately  went  to  work  in 
the  General  Offices  of  the  Erie  Railway 
Company,  where  he  took  up  the  study  of 
Graham's  Standard  Phonography.  He  made 
very  rapid  progress,  and  at  15  years  of 
age  became  the  assistant  private  secre- 
tary to  Mr.  Blanchard,  at  that  time  the 
Vice  President  of  the  Erie  Railway  Com- 
pany. Two  years  later  he  entered  the 
service  of  the  eminent  law  firm  of  Man  & 
Parsons,  as  the  assistant  of  Mr.  Eugene 
Davis,  at  that  time  one  cf  the  foremost 


84 


law  stenographers  of  New  York,  who  has 
kindly  furnished  the  following  tribute 
to  his  memory: 

"It  is  quite  safe  to  say  that  in  the 
making  of  shorthand  notes  no  human  hand 
was  ever  more  artistic  or  skillful  than 
that  of  Joseph  E.  Lyons.  It  was  my  good 
fortune  to  secure  him  as  an  assistant 
when  I  had  my  office  with  Messrs.  Man  & 
Parsons,  a  leading  law  firm  of  New  York 
City.  The  work  of  the  office  was  heavy, 
and  having  as  well  an  outside  business,  I 
needed  some  one  to  read  and  transcribe 
notes,  and  found  that  he  could  read  mine 
practically  as  well  as  his  own.  He  left 
his  former  employment  with  regret,  but 
in  obedience  to  a  strong  ambition  for  the 
stenographic  profession  and  with  a  desire 
to  secure  a  class  of  work  that  would  con- 
stitute a  training  for  it.  Although  at 
the  time  only  17  years  old,  he  wrote  very 
beautiful  shorthand  notes,  and  from  the 
ease  with  which  he  handled  his  pen  it  was 
clear  that  with  proper  experience  he  had 
in  him  the  making  of  a  great  shorthand 
writer.  After  some  experience  in  note- 
reading,  so  that  the  varied  and  technical 
terminology  of  the  law  became  quite  fa- 
miliar to  him  and  the  corresponding  vari- 
ety of  stenographic  outlines  had  found 
thorough  lodgment  in  his  mind,  he  began 
to  relieve  me  of  the  routine  work  of  the 


85 


office.  Thus  he  grew  by  degrees  into 
taking  notes  of  occasional  hearings  in 
the  office,  and  finally  to  taking  "refer- 
ences" as  they  offered,  with,  for  his 
age,  wonderful  ease  and  facility,  always 
maintaining  a  high  order  of  artistic  ex- 
cellence in  his  notes. 

"For  one  so  young  he  had  done  a  great 
deal  of  good  reading,  having  in  mind  at 
all  times  the  gradual  and  complete  prepa- 
ration, not  of  his  hand  alone,  but  as 
well  of  his  mind,  for  the  highest  attain- 
able standard  in  the  line  of  the  profes- 
sion which  he  loved.  He  was  possessed  of 
a  rare  combination  of  enthusiasm  and  com- 
mon sense,  and  had  in  an  unusual  degree 
the  faculty  of  making  and  keeping 
friends.  When,  owing  to  failing  health, 
he  was  obliged  to  seek  another  climate, 
it  was  clear  to  all  who  knew  him  that, 
should  his  life  be  spared,  he  would  be- 
come widely  known  and  admired  in  his  pro- 
fession. His  success  in  his  new  field 
shows  that  he  continued  to  bear  in  mind 
that  high  standard  of  excellence  which  in 
early  youth  he  had  set  up  for  himself. 
By  his  untimely  death  the  stenographic 
profession  lost  one  of  its  brightest  or- 
naments. " 

In  the  summer  of  1876,  on  account  of 
ill  health,  Mr.  Lyons  was  forced  to  seek 
a  milder  climate,  and  removed  to  Minneap- 


86 


oils,  Minn.,  where,  in  the  following  Oc- 
tober, he  was  appointed  official  stenog- 
rapher of  the  District  Court.  At  that 
time  he  was  suffering  from  incipient  con- 
sumption, and  it  was  thought  "by  all  who 
knew  him  that  he  could  not  live  a  year; 
but  he  lived  long  enough  to  write  nearly 
half  a  million  folios  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful shorthand  the  author  of  this  sketch 
has  ever  seen  and  to  accumulate  a  modest 
fortune  of  $30,000.'  On  many  occasions  he 
gave  evidence  of  his  ability  to  write 
over  250  words  in  a  minute.  The  writer 
once  timed  him  while  he  was  taking  a 
charge  to  the  jury  by  Judge  Koon,  proba- 
bly the  most  rapid  speaker  in  Minnesota, 
and  a  careful  count  showed  that  he  had 
written  at  the  rate  of  267  words  a  minute 
for  three  consecutive  minutes.  His  re- 
porting notes  always  exhibited  wonderful 
uniformity,  and  he  would  write  for  days 
without  a  pen-slip  or  erasure  appearing 
in  his  work.  When  pressed  by  a  rapid 
speaker  he  wrote  small  and  compact  notes, 
and  he  possessed  the  rare  faculty  of 
grouping  clauses, --the  grasping  of  groups 
of  words  by  the  "handful",  to  use  Mr.  Ir- 
land's  expression.  This  peculiarity, 
which  contributed  greatly  to  the  legibil- 
ity of  his  writing,  is  strikingly  exem- 
plified in  the  last  four  lines  of  his 
notes  presented  herewith.  His  speed  in 


87 


longhand  was  marvelous,  it  being  no  un- 
usual thing  for  him  to  write  26  folios  in 
an  hour  from  his  notes  with  a  stub-pen, 
and  on  one  occasion  he  wrote  from  dicta- 
tion, on  a  fair  test,  63  words  in  a  min- 
ute in  good,  legible  longhand. 

After  more  than  eight  years  of  service 
in  the  courts  of  Minnesota,  he  succumbed 
to  the  disease  with  which  he  had  battled 
from  the  time  he  left  New  York,  and  died 
in  Minneapolis,  in  February,  1885,  at  the 
early  age  of  27.  All  things  considered — 
his  youth,  his  opportunities,  his  always 
precarious  condition  of  health — he  was 
probably  the  greatest  stenographer  that 
ever  lived.  The  specimen  of  his  writing 
given  on  page  109,  which  has  been  repro- 
duced without  reduction,  was  taken  from 
his  notes  of  the  argument  of  Hon.  John  W. 
Arctander  in  the  impeachment  trial  of 
'Judge  St.  Julien  Cox,  in  the  Legislature 
of  Minnesota,  in  November,  1881,  which  he 
reported  in  connection  with  Mr.  Geo.  N. 
Hillman,  a  page  of  whose  notes  is  given 
elsewhere.  Mr.  Arctander  is  an  exceed- 
ingly rapid  speaker,  and  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  the  notes  were  taken  at  the  rate 
of  200  words  a  minute.  The  key  is  given 
on  page  143. 


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109 


CONTRIBUTIONS  BY  THE  REPORTERS  OF  DEBATES 
OF  THE  U.  S.  SENATE 


Extract  from  Speech  of  Senator  Harris 

Each  of  these  States  has  the  absolute 
right  to  speak  for  itself  and  in  its  own 
way  upon  all  subjects  except  such  as  have 
been  delegated  by  the  Constitution  to  the 
Federal  Government,  and  I  want  to  say 
further  that  when  this  creature  of  the 
States  called  the  Government  of  the  Unit- 
ed States  stretches  out  its  strong  hand 
to  interfere  in  any  manner  whatever  in 
the  elections  of  the  States  for  their  own 
representatives  it  does  so  in  open  viola- 
tion of  our  theory  of  government,  and  if 
it  succeeds  in  such  effort  free  repre- 
sentative government  is  gone,  and  you 
will  have  centralized  all  governmental 
power  in  Congress,  especially  that  most 
important  of  all  powers,  the  power  of  the 
people  to 'select  their  own  representa- 
tives and  to  select  them  according  to 
such  regulations  as  their  own  legisla- 
tures may  prescribe.  (Extract  from  speech 
of  Senator  Harris,  of  Tennessee,  February 
6,  1894.)  D.  F.  Murphy. 


110 


Mental  Processes  of  Shorthand  Reporting 

The  mental  processes  by  which  short- 
hand reporting  is  done  are  no  less  inter- 
esting to  note  than  the  mechanical. 
Dexterity  of  thought  is  as  much  a  pre- 
requisite as  flexibility  of  muscle.  The 
external  suggestion  of  the  utterance  is 
photographed  on  the  mind  of  the  stenog- 
rapher; the  movement  of  his  hand  is  kept 
under  complete  control;  the  forms  must  be 
anticipated  in  order  to  be  written  with- 
out hesitation?  and  all  the  faculties  are 
brought  into  play  to  shed  light  upon  the 
proceeding,  for  what  is  not  well  under- 
stood can  not  be  accurately  transcribed. 
How  much  of  this  expert  mental  exertion 
is  due  to  training  and  how  much  to  nat- 
ural aptitude  will  vary  in  each  individ- 
ual case,  so  that  the  degree  in  which 
talent  has  been  supplemented  by  practice 
may  not  be  distinctly  marked. 

The  peculiar  adaptability  of  the  wri- 
ter in  these  respects  indicates  certain 
characteristics  which  to  detail  would 
fill  a  long  chapter.  His  mind  is  extroi- 
tive  rather  than  retentive;  it  reaches 
out  to  take  in  rather  than  to  store  in 
the  memory.  It  is  a  law  of  mental 
science  that  the  greater  the  number  of 
facts  which  are  carried  in  the  mind  the 
less  readily  can  any  particular  one  -be 


111 


recalled,  just  as  when  a  shop-keeper  has 
to  search  his  shelves  among  a  great  num- 
ber of  articles  the  longer  it  takes  him 
to  find  what  he  wants.  Hence  the  great 
value  of  books  of  reference  and  all  kinds 
of  information  kept  ready  at  hand.  To 
give  a  familiar  illustration,  the  re- 
porter may  be  like  Chaucer's  doctor  of 
physic — "His  studie  was  but  litel  on  the 
Bible,"  but  he  should  know  the  order  of 
the  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament, 
the  divisions  of  Cruden's  Concordance  and 
the  Oxford  Helps.  So  with  Shakespeare, 
he  need  have  only  such  a  general  famil- 
iarity with  the  plays  as  is  given  by  a 
perusal  of  the  Commentaries  of  Gervinus, 
but  he  should  know  how  to  handle  in  an 
expeditious  way  Mrs.  Cowden  Clarke's  Con- 
cordance and  Nares1  Glossary. 

As  to  style,  the  reporter  should  be 
careful  to  preserve  the  peculiarities  of 
expression  of  the  speaker,  and  he  is  re- 
sponsible for  it  only  so  far  as  it  is 
grammatical.  While  appreciating  the 
force  of  Horace's  well-known  maxim  that 
good  sense  is  the  origin  and  source  of 
good  style,  he  does  not  venture  beyond 
perspicuity  and  good  grammar  in  his  ma- 
nipulation of  the  winged  words  which  it 
is  his  honorable  vocation  to  preserve  in 
a  permanent  form  for  the  use  of  his  day 
and  generation  and  possibly  for  the  bene- 
fit of  posterity.  Theo.  F.  Shuey. 

112 


The  Requirements  of  a.  Reporter 

In  the  practice  of  our  profession  to  a 
greater  degree  than  in  any  other  of  which 
I  have  knowledge  must  there  be  the  most 
untiring  and  unflagging  industry.  He  who 
overmuch  loves  his  ease,  he  who  is  not 
willing  to  forego  the  pleasures  of  soci- 
ety, the  delights  of  friendly  intercourse, 
yea,  even  oftentimes  the  sweet  felicities 
of  home,  should  never  aspire  to  become  a 
reporter.  Whether  his  labor  lasts  for  an 
hour  or  for  24  or  48  hours — as  is  fre- 
quently the  case  towards  the  close  of  a 
session  in  both  Houses  of  Congress — the 
reporter  must  always  be  on  the  alert,  his 
fingers  ever  nimble,  his  brain  continual- 
ly active,  and  his  work  performed  with 
the  same  fidelity  and  care  at  the  expira- 
tion of  the  24  or  48  hours  as  at  their 

beginning He  who  aspires  to  take 

an  honorable  place  in  the  reporting  pro- 
fession must  be  a  man  of  sterling  integ- 
rity. In  every  trade  and  profession,  in 
every  walk  of  life,  character  counts  for 
much,  but  in  none  does  it  count  for  more 
than  in  ours.  In  times  of  high  excite- 
ment, such  as  occasionally  occur  in  all 
parliamentary  bodies,  when  the  fight  for 
the  mastery  is  raging  and  when  passion 
may  temporarily  usurp  the  place  of  rea- 
son, the  character  of  the  reporter,  his 


113 


capacity  and  integrity  are  the  only  secu- 
rities of  statesmen.  Upon  these  quali- 
ties they  should  always  feel  that  they 
can  implicitly  rely.  Just  in  proportion 
as  the  reporter  possesses  all  the  neces- 
sary requirements  of  his  profession,  in- 
cluding always  that  of  perfect  integrity, 
will  he  receive  the  confidence  of  those 
in  whose  behalf  his  art  is  exercised,  the 
respect  of  his  associates,  and,  what  is 
best  of  all,  the  approval  of  his  own  con- 
science. (Extract  from  an  address  deliv- 
ered by  the  writer  before  the  Washington 
Stenographers'  Association  March  25, 
1893.)  E.  V.  Murphy. 


Phrases  Used  by  Senate  Reporters 

My  best  contribution  to  this  symposium 
I  think  would  be  a  few  phrases  given  at 
random,  most  of  which  have  been  in  use  by 
the  Senate  corps  of  Official  Reporters 

for  nearly  half  a  century. 

H.  J.  Gensler. 

Mr.  President,  in  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives,  be  it  enacted,  special 
order,  bill  for  the  relief  of,  nor  do  I 
propose,  I  wish  to  offer  a  resolution,  I 
make  that  motion,  what  I  send  to  the 
Chair,  I  have  no  objection,  Democratic 
party,  Republican  party,  State  sover- 


114 


eignty,  yeas  and  nays,  Mason  and  Dixonfs 
line,  many  instances  are  recorded,  on  my 
left,  on  our  part,  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States,  on  my  table,  on  their  own 
account,  on  the  present  occasion,  set 
forth,  so  much  money,  as  may  be  neces- 
sary, Speaker's  table,  in  order  to  have,  at 
the  next  session,  at  the  last  session,  at 
the  present  session,  gold  and  silver,  sil- 
ver currency,  sinking  fund,  fugitive  slave 
law,  something  more  than  that,  what  ought 
to  be  done,  what  shall  be,  as  shall  be, 
what  would  be  the  result,  which  are  nec- 
essary ,  /which  are  alleged,  which  can  be, 
which  can  not  be,  which  has  been  recent- 
ly, let  us  have,  which  has  been  read, 
which  have  taken  place,  which  has  just 
been,  which  I  have  the  honor  in  part, 
more  or  less,  Martin  Van  Buren,  Henry 
Clay,  which  will  lead,  previous  question, 
which  can  exercise,  diplomatic  service  of 
the  United  States,  military  service,  let 
us  see,  alternate  sections,  who  shall  in- 
vestigate, will  not  be  embarrassed,  on 
the  other  hand,  in  all  its  parts,  you 
will  not  be  able  to  redeem,  different 
parts  of  the  United  States,  Territories 
of  the  United  States,  I  am  not  aware,  I 
am  opposed,  I  am  not  in  favor,  I  am  very 
happy,  I  am  very  sorry,  I  am  very  well 
aware,  I  am  willing,  I  am  unwilling,  I 
know  nothing  about,  at  any  rate,  I  hope 


115 


that  will  be  done,  I  may  be  mistaken,  per 
acre,  square  leagues,  it  will  not  do, 
somewhere  else,  side  by  side,  agreed  to, 
I  have  no  doubt,  I  have  no  desire,  it  is 
impossible,  it  seems  to  me,  internal  rev- 
enue, two-thirds,  War  Department,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury,  Secretary  of  State, 
Postmaster  General,"  Secretary  of  War, 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  Circuit  Court  of  the 
United  States,  on  both  sides,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  my  honorable  friend  from  New 
York,  distinguished  Senator  from  South 
Carolina,  now  sir,  but  sir,  in  such  man- 
ner as  to  make,  necessaries  of  life,  man- 
ner in  which,  since  that  time,  Guadaloupe 
Hidalgo,  for  many  years,  for  the  first 
time,  in  the  first  place,  in  the  second 
place . 


Rate  of  Speaking  in  the  Senate 

In  reference  to  speed  in  shorthand 
writing,  Mr.  D.  P.  Murphy,  the  Official 
Stenographer  of  the  United  States  Senate, 
who  has  had  more  experience  in  this  re- 
gard than  any  other  living  man,  said  in 
December,  1887: 

"The  average  of  speaking  in  the  Senate 
is  between  140 'and  150  words  per  minute. 
Of  course  to  make  this  average  involves 


116 


the  rate  of  over  200  words  a  minute  on 
the  part  of  some.  There  was  a  debate  some 
years  ago,  when  Mr.  Sargent,  of  Califor- 
nia (one  of  the  fastest  continuous  speak- 
ers I  ever  encountered) ,  was  a  member  of 
the  Senate,  which  I  took  the  trouble  to 
measure  the  words  of  after  it  was  pub- 
lished next  day.  The  debate  occupied  four 
hours,  Mr.  Sargent  being  the  principal 
speaker,  and  for  the  entire  four  hours 
the  average  was  208  or  210  words  per  min- 
ute; I  do  not  remember  precisely  which, 
but  I  know  it  was  one  or  the  other.  We 
have  now  in  the  Senate  several  gentlemen, 
of  whom  Mr.  Hawley,  Mr.  Beck,  and  Mr. 
Plumb  may  be  mentioned  as  specimens,  who 
hardly  ever  speak  at  a  less  rate  than  two 
hundred  words  a  minute.  In  my  opinion  it 
would  be  impossible  for  a  reporter  to  be 
equal  to  all  the  emergencies  of  note-tak- 
ing unless  he  could  write  continuously 
for  hours  two  hundred  words  per  minute  in 
shorthand."  Dan.  B.  Lloyd. 


The  Difficulties  of  Verbatim  Reporting 

Verbatim  reporting  is  a  contest  be- 
tween a  speaker  and  a  reporter,  with  the 
conditions  named  by  the  former.  He  de- 
termines the  number  who  shall  compete 
with  him  against  the  reporter,  the  pace, 


117 


the  distance,  and  whether  the  race  shall 
be  on  the  flat  or  over  the  steeple-chase 
course.  The  hurdles  (stated  in  the  re- 
verse order  of  the  difficulty  of  sur- 
mounting them)  are  high  speed,  obscurity 
of  style,  technical  terminology,  indis- 
tinctness of  delivery,  and  conditions 
which  render  hearing  difficult.  The  bu- 
gle sounds;  they1 re  off.  At  the  quarter 
the  leader  is  pressed;  an  interruption  is 
permitted,  a  cross-fire  of  words  ensues. 
At  the  half  other  contestants  appear,  and 
a  half  dozen  engage  in  an  exciting  de- 
bate. It  seems  as  though  the  effort  were 
to  pocket  the  reporter,  but  he  pulls  up 
his  mount  and  shoots  through.  Here  the 
simile  ends,  for  although  the  reporter 
must  keep  neck  and  neck  with  the  winner, 
never  failing  at  the  same  time  to  record 
every  movement  of  the  other  participants, 
he  never  pulls  down  a  purse.  The  race  is 
run;  a  foul  is  claimed;  the  reporter 
reads  his  notes,  and  a  chapter  in  current 
history  is  ended.  Years  of  assiduous 
study  and  persevering  training  have 
brought  the  reporter  to  this  point.  Dex- 
terity of  hand,  flexibility  of  muscle  are 
his  only  requisites,  in  the  popular  mind. 
But  is  there  not  more?  Thought,  it  has 
been  said,  is  the  property  of  him  who  can 
entertain  it;  and  qualifications  of  a 
character  equally  as  high  are  necessary 


118 


to  the  almost  simultaneous  operation  of 
receiving  and  transferring  the  mental  im- 
pressions of  others.  It  is  true  the  pro- 
fession is  one  in  which  the  navigator 
learns  best  by  experience  how  to  manage 
his  craft,  but  if,  as  Gibbon  remarks,  the 
winds  and  waves  are  always  on  the  side  of 
the  ablest  seaman,  is  it  not  manifest 
that,  other  things  being  equal,  the  best 
reporter  is  the  one  who  possesses  the 
most  varied  attainments? 

Milton  W.  Blumenberg. 


119 


CONTRIBUTIONS  BY  THE  REPORTERS  OF  DEBATES 
OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES 


Suggestions  and  Cautions 

My  Dear  Mr.  Dunham:  The  following  sug- 
gestions and  cautions  (furnished  at  your 
request,  and  in  which  I  hope  you  will 
concur)  are  addressed,  through  you,  to 
young  phonographers : 

1.  Familiarity  with  fundamental  word- 
building  principles   is   the  backbone  of 
the  reporter1 s  anatomy.   It  is  this   that 
enables  him  to  write  new  and   strange 
words  without  loss  of   time  and  without 
"getting  rattled".   These  new  and  strange 
words  he   is  constantly  liable  to  meet 
till  the  last  day  of  his  reporting  life. 

2.  Never  allow  yourself  to  write  so 
fast  that  you  can  not  read  all   that  you 
have  written.   For  a  certain  part  of  each 
day,  drop  dictation  practice,  and  write 
several  pages  of   shorthand  as  neatly  and 
beautifully  as  you  can.   Regular  practice 
of  this  kind  is   the   surest  protection 
against  a  slovenly  and  illegible  style. 

3.  In  shorthand,  nothing  can  be  consid- 
ered memorized  until   it  can  be  recalled 


120 


instantly  whenever  wanted.   The  stenog- 
rapher who  half- recollects  is  lost. 

4.  Whatever   system   you  may  have 
learned,  if  you  can  read  it  and  write  it 
with  reasonable  facility,  do  not  rashly 
make  any  radical  changes. 

5.  Try  to  write  by  general  rules, 
avoiding  exceptions  and  anomalies,  which 
tend  to  confuse  the  memory  and  beget  hes- 
itation. 

6.  Invariability  of  outline  is  one 
great  factor  of  speed.   Early  in  your 
practice,  you  should  settle  finally  and 
forever  the  outlines  of  all  common  words. 
Do  not  write  one  way  to-day  and  another 
to-morrow.   Because  the  speaker  is  slow, 
do  not  indulge  in  outlines  longer  or  more 
fully  vocalized  than  would  be  used  if  the 
speaker  were  rapid.   Departure  from  ac- 
customed word-outlines  in  order  to  make 
phrases  is  almost  always  a  mistake. 

7.  In  settling  outlines,  try  to  adopt 
those  which  are  legible  and  distinctive 
without  vocalization.   A  vocalized  out- 
line for  a  common  word  is  rarely  neces- 
sary or  justifiable. 

8.  But  you  must  be  able  to  insert  vow- 
els instantaneously  when  new  or  strange 
words  require   them.   You  have  only  half 
learned  shorthand  if  you  have  not  mas- 
tered  the   art   of  instantaneous  vowel- 
placing. 


121 


9.  The  more  often  you  depart  from  the 
line  of  writing,  the   greater  the   labor 
for  the  hand  and   the   less   the   speed. 
Therefore   avoid  word-forms  and   phrases 
which  needlessly  carry  the  hand  away  from 
the  "second  position". 

10.  As   to  the  fullness  or  brevity  of 
your  style,   choose  methods  which  are 
suited  to  your  own  peculiarities  of  mind 
and  hand.    If  you  overtax  your  memory 
with  more  contractions  than  you  can  read- 
ily master,  or  overtax  your  hand  with 
intricacies  of  form  and  over-nice   dis- 
tinctions which  can  not  be  executed  with- 
out extreme  care, there  may  be  an  apparent 
gain   in  brevity  with  no  gain  in  speed, 
but  a  substantial  and  disastrous  loss. 

11.  Establish  habits  of  writing  which 
will  be  safe  under  all  circumstances.   Do 
not  adopt  "expedients"  which  are  "gener- 
ally" safe,  trusting   to   the  inspiration 
of   the  moment  to  tell  you  when  they  are 
unsafe . 

12.  The  office  stenographer  who  prac- 
tices only  upon  routine  matter  and  from 
the  dictation  of  but   one  person,  runs 
great  risk  of  becoming  good  for  nothing 
when  removed  from  his  "rut".   Regular  and 
diligent  practice  upon  varied  matter  out- 
side of  business  hours,  is  his  only  salva- 
tion. 

13.  Attempting   too  early  to  extempo- 


122 


rize  phrases  is  a  stumbling-block  with 
most  beginners.  Phrasing  should  be  the 
latest-acquired  of  the  reporter's  accom- 
plishments. Undertaken  too  early,  it 
leads  to  confusion  and  hesitation,  and 
consequent  loss  of  speed.  The  learner 
should  postpone  phrasing  (except  a  few 
commonplace  and.  thoroughly-memorized  com- 
binations) until  logograms  and  common 
word-forms  ,are  firmly  settled  in  the 
memory.  David  Wolfe  Brown. 


_A^  Composite  Shorthand  System 

Dear  Mr.  Dunham:  Although  I  have  been 
for  some  time  past  quite  sick,  and  am 
still  far  from  well,  I  will  endeavor  to 
comply  with  your  request  for  a  brief  art- 
icle for  your  proposed  book. 

I  am  often  asked  by  the  writers  of 
other  systems  why  it  is  that  mine  differs 
so  materially  from  theirs.  The  reason  is 
this:  When  I  began  the  study  of  short- 
hand, more  than  30  years  ago,  the  only 
text-book  I  could  find  was  "Gould1 s  Sten- 
ography", a  cumbrous  and  incomplete  sys- 
tem, which  would  be  of  little  service  for 
the  present  requirements  of  the  art.  It 
had  no  vowel  scale  or  rules  of  position, 
and  made  unlimited  drafts  on  the  memory. 
I  devised  a  vowel  scale  of  my  own,  which 


123 


I  found  afterwards  to  be  in  some  respects 
identical  with  the  Pitman  scale,  except 
that  the  positions  were  reversed.  I  saw 
Pitman's  consonant  signs  for  the  first 
time  while  engaged  in  reporting  the  pro- 
ceedings of  a  convention  in  Richmond, 
Va.,  some  time  in  1866,  and  their  sim- 
plicity induced  me  at  once  to  substitute 
them  for  the  awkward  characters  I  had 
been  using,  though  I  retained  for  the 
most  part  my  own  vowel  scale  and  contrac- 
tions. These  I  still  use. 

Strangely  enough,  the  main  reason  for 
changing  the  consonant  signs  grew  out  of 
the  writing  of  a  single  word.  A  friend 
of  mine,  who  had  obtained  a  copy  of  one 
of  Graham's  early  books,  asked  me  to  show 
him  how  to  write  the  word  "Manchester". 
I  did  so,  as  I  now  remember,  in  some  such 
absurd  form  as  this:.,  ^v •  •»  or  something 
similar.  He  said,  "What  do  you  think  of 
writing  it  this  way,.  ^  .?"  It  struck  me 
as  being  a  good  idea,  and  I  procured  a 
book  as  soon  as  possible  and  adopted  the 
new  signs  in  their  entirety. 

Respectfully,  &c.,   John  H.  White. 


The  Inventors  of  the  Talking-Machine 

My  Dear  Mr.  Dunham:   I  notice  that  Mr 
Easton,  in  his   contribution,   has  men- 


124 


tioned  the  fact  that  I  was  the  first  per- 
son anywhere  to  use  the  talk ing -machine 
for  a  practical  purpose,  and  as  the  body 
of  shorthand  literature  is  already  so 
considerable  —  lacking  only  your  book  to 
be  complete--it  occurs  to  me  that  the 
best  use  I  can  make  of  the  page  you  as- 
sign me  is  to  state  some  facts  not  gener- 
ally known  in  relation  to  the  invention 
of  the  graphophone  and  the  phonograph. 
For  the  sake  of  condensation  I  will  put 
them  in  the  form  of  propositions: 

1.  Mr.  Edison,  I  believe,  invented  the 
original  phonograph  about  1878.  He  has 
given  his  own  account  of  its  genesis, 
which  is  probably  as  near  the  truth  as 
anything  that  he  says,  for  those  who  know 
that  great  man  know  that  he  never  has  his 
inventive  powers  so  fully  at  command  as 
when  he  is  dealing  with  facts. 

2..  That  phonograph  was  merely  a  mar- 
velous toy.  It  could  not  be  put  to  any 
practical  use,  because  it  was  constructed 
on  the  principle  of  making  the  record  by 
indenting  a  sheet  of  tin-foil  wrapped 
round  a  mandrel,  and  the  ordinary  human 
voice  has  not  power  enough  to  record  in 
that  way  any  but  the  "strongest"  vowel 
sounds.  Hence  the  invention  fell  dead 
and  was  utterly  neglected  by  the  inventor 
and  by  the  public  for  nearly  10  years. 

3.  The  honor  of  discovering  and  apply- 


125 


ing  the  principle  which  makes  the  talk- 
ing-machine practical  belongs  to  Charles 
Sumner  Taint er,  the  inventor  of  the 
graphophone,  in  which  he  substituted  wax 
for  tin-foil  and  "engraving",  or  plough- 
ing out  the  material,  for  indenting. 

4.  The  first   demonstration   that   the 
graphophone  was  a  practical   talking-ma- 
chine was  made  by  Mr.  James  0.  Clephane 
and  myself,  at  Professor  Tainter's  labo- 
ratory in  this  city,  on  a  certain  Sunday 
in  the  winter  of  1886-7.   As  a  result  of 
this  demonstration  the  American  Grapho- 
phone Company  was  formed  by  Mr.  Clephane, 
Mr.  John  H.  White,  and  Mr.  Devine. 

5.  Early  in  the  summer  of  the   same 
year   (1887)   we,  by  invitation,  took  the 
graphophone  to  New  York  to  show  it  to  Mr. 
Edison,  with   the  view  of  combining  the 
two  interests.   Mr.  Edison  was  "sick"  and 
did  not  appear;   but  for  three  or  four 
days   the  instrument  was  freely  exhibited 
to  several  of  his  leading  associates  in 
business  and  to  his  right-hand  man  in  the 
mechanical  department,  Mr.  Batchelor. 

6.  Within  a  few  months  Mr.  Edison  "in- 
vented" the  new  phonograph,  in  which  wax 
was  substituted  for  tin-foil  and  "engrav- 
ing" for  indenting,  just  as  in  the  graph- 
ophone.  I  suppose   the  coincidence  was 
owing   to   the   fact  that  Mr.  Edison  is  a 
"wizard".  Andrew  Devine. 


126 


The  House  of  Representatives 

The  House  of  Representatives  is  a  very 
interesting  body,  considered  apart  from 
its  partisan  phase.  To  see  two  Members 
of  different  parties  or  opposing  sides  of 
a  particular  question  laughing  and  joking 
with  each  other  in  the  very  best  of  good- 
fellowship  within  an  hour  after  a  heated 
colloquy  is  a  frequent  occurrence.  There 
is  no  place  where  intellectual  vanity  is 
more  quickly  discovered  or  sooner  experi- 
ences a  fall.  The  exercise  of  oratorical 
gifts  is  rare,  but  their  possession  is 
abundantly  evidenced  on  matters  of  great 
national  import.  It  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered at  that  in  a  body  of  such  number 
the  speech  which  is  most  effective  is 
that  which  deals  more  in  statement  than 
argument,  and  least  in  rhetoric.  When  a 
Member  acquires  the  confidence  of  the 
House  by  reason  of  special  knowledge  on 
any  particular  subject  or  establishes  a 
character  for  impartiality  and  fairness, 
the  attention  he  receives  must  be  ex- 
tremely flattering;  but  unhappy  he  who, 
even  unintentionally,  is  not  entirely 
candid:  the  lack  of  confidence  haunts  his 
legislative  life  for  years.  With  some 
Members  the  mere  statement  that  they  have 
examined  a  bill  and  found  it  unobjection- 
able is  sufficient  to  pass  an  important 


127 


measure;  with  others  demonstration  must 
be  made.  The  present  House  is  specially 
notable  for  the  many  new  and  young  Mem- 
bers who  have  obtained  prompt  recognition 
for  marked  ability.  The  fact  that  the 
topics  debated  have  been  discussed  on  the 
hustings  so  much  in  the  past  few  years 
has  enabled  Members  to  display  such  fa- 
cility of  expression  as  really  makes  the 
reporters  tired.  Some  of  the  warmest 
lifelong  friendships  are  formed  between 
Members  of  opposite  parties,  very  largely 
induced  by  their  associations  on  commit- 
tees. A.  C.  Welch. 


The  Use  of  the  Phrasing  Principle 

The  proper  use  of  the  phrasing  prin- 
ciple is  a  subject  upon  which  many  re- 
porters disagree.  Some  think  they  escape 
from  it  by  saying  "Do  not  Ehrase  at  all." 
But  I  have  never  seen  one  who  meant  just 
that.  The  grouping  of  words  together 
without  lifting  the  pen,  under  certain 
circumstances,  is  one  of  the  easiest  and 
most  useful  things  connected  with  the 
writing  of  shorthand.  In  listening  to 
spoken  words  we  do  not  think  of  each  one 
separately.  The  clause  and  sentence  are 
taken  as  a  whole.  The  most  accomplished 
reporters  I  have  ever  known  have  been 


128 


those  who  grasped  groups  of  words  by  the 
handful,  so  to  speak,  catching  them  in 
the  same  spirit  and  with  the  same  rhythm 
which  characterized  their  utterance.  I 
think  one  of  the  greatest  obstacles  to 
the  successful  understanding  of  the 
phrasing  principle  is  the  idea  urged  by 
many  teachers  that  the  same  combination 
of  words  must  always  be  phrased  in  the 
same  way.  The  life  of  the  spoken  sen- 
tence is  its  rhythm,  the  swing  with  which 
the  words  are  uttered.  This  is  partially 
represented  on  the  printed  page  by  the 
punctuation.  It  is  best  reproduced  by 
the  grouping  of  the  words.  I  suppose 
most  teachers  would  insist  that  the  words , 
"House  of  Representatives,"  should  always 
be  phrased  in  the  same  way,  whether  spoken 
slowly  or  rapidly,  and  without  regard  to 
the  context.  But  the  reporter  who  fol- 
lows the  rhythm  of  the  speaker  will  do 
nothing  of  the  kind.  The  words,  "In  the 
House  of  Representatives,"  would  be  writ- 
ten " .  ^^°  .., "  while  the  words,  "Gentlemen, 
remember  that  we  are  not  responsible  for 
the  actions  of  the  other  House,  but  we 
are  acting  as  Members  of  this  House,  of 
Representatives  of  the  whole  people," 
would  be  spoken  with  an  entirely  differ- 
ent swing,  and  the  reporter  should  follow 
the  speaker's  rhythm.  Fred  Irland. 


129 


CONTRIBUTIONS  BY  STENOGRAPHERS  TO  COMMIT- 
TEES, HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES 


The  Joys  of  an  Official  Reporter  to  Com- 
mittees 

To  be  called  upon  at  a  moment fs  notice 
to  go  into  a  committee  of  perhaps  seven- 
teen members,  of  whom  you  probably  know 
three;  to  meet  there  a  delegation,  none 
of  whom  you  know;  to  have  a  member  of 
that  delegation  begin  speaking  without 
hearing  his  name;  to  have  members  of  that 
delegation  chip  in  and  have  to  locate 
them  by  their  physical  peculiarities  (I 
have  had  to  chase  a  man  all  through  Flor- 
ida who  in  my  notes  was  down  as  "Wooden 
Leg");  to  have  experts  come  before  a  com- 
mittee and  tell  in  half  an  hour  what  they 
have  been  studying  for  years,  and  to  have 
them  stimulated  to  extra  speed  by  the  in- 
formation that  they  have  only  ten  minutes 
more;  to  have  a  simultaneous  colloquy  be- 
tween three  or  four  persons,  for  each  one 
to  misunderstand  the  other,  and  to  have 
them  ask  the  stenographer  to  read  (Of 
course  if  they  can  not  understand  each 
other  the  stenographer  does) ;  to  have  a 


130 


man  who  has  invented  a  submarine  automo- 
bile torpedo,  who  has  a  voluble  tongue 
and  ten  minutes  time,  explain  to  the  com- 
mittee its  interior  mechanism;  to  have 
gun  experts  explain  modern  guns  with 
little  technicalities  about  tensile 
strength,  interior  erosion,  windage, 
etc.,  scattered  all  through;  to  have  to 
report  tariff  hearings  of  men  of  almost 
every  nationality  on  all  the  subjects  em- 
braced in  the  tariff  (How  I  do  love  a 
German  chemist  on  aniline  dyes  or  some 
such  pleasant  subject);  to  have  a  member 
of  a  committee  ask  an  astronomer  "What  is 
the  relation  between  the  transit  of  Venus 
and  the  Nautical  Almanac"  or  some  such 
question,  which  is  like  shaking  a  red  rag 
at  a  bull;  to  report  a  man  whose  every 
sentence  makes  Murray  turn  over  in  his 
grave,  and  then  watch  the  copy  like  a 
hawk  in  order  to  divorce  unholy  alliances 
between  singular  nouns  and  plural  verbs, 
and  vice  versa,--these  are  only  a  few  of 
the  joys  which  make  the  official  reporter 
to  committees  rosy  and  fat. 

Geo.  C.  Lafferty. 


Committee  Reporting 

In  taking  notes  I  find  the   three-nib- 
bed steel  pen  the  most   serviceable,  be- 


131 


cause  it  yields  readily  and  shades  well. 
Fountain  pens  are  suitable  for  some,  but 
I  have  always  found  them  too  hard. 

It  is  not  my  habit  to  use  many  abbre- 
viations, because  I  always  like  to  write 
so  that  I  will  know  a  character  when  I 
see  it  again.  I  aim  to  make  the  most 
legible  notes  which  time  will  permit,  and 
when  not  hard-pressed  I  vocalize. 

I  think  the  better  one  understands  the 
subject  he  is  reporting  the  better  will 
be  his  report  and  the  easier  his  work. 

On  account  of  the  many  subjects  handled 
by  the  committees  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, the  committee  reporting  is 
very  difficult  and  technical. 

Hearings  before  the  Committee  on  Ways 
and  Means  involve  over  three  thousand 
subjects,  which  are  chiefly  treated  by 
experts  or  those  interested  in  the  vari- 
ous articles  subject  to  duty. 

I  once  had  a  German  before  the  commit- 
tee who  gave  forth  chemical  terms  with 
such  volubility  as  to  cause  merriment  at 
my  struggles  to  get  them. 

Another  thing  which  makes  the  commit- 
tee work  difficult  is  the  want  of  order 
which  usually  characterizes  the  proceed- 
ings. Members  freely  exercise  the  privi- 
lege of  interrupting  a  speaker  at  any 
point  in  his  remarks.  W.  J.  Kehoe . 


132 


THE  FIRST  USERS  OP  THE  GRAPHOPHONE 


The  following  letter  was  written  when 
the  graphophone,  now  so  generally  in  use 
as  a  mechanical  stenographer,  was  in  its 
infancy.  Mr.  Andrew  Devine,  the  cele- 
brated stenographer,  was  the  first  man  in 
the  world  to  use  the  machine  for  practical 
purposes,  and  the  writer  of  this  article 
was  the  second.  To-day  there  are  about 
fifty  machines  in  the  United  States  Capi- 
tol alone,  fourteen  being  required  by  the 
reporters  of  debates,  while  Senators, 
Representatives,  newspaper  men,  lawyers, 
and  business  men  generally  have  awakened 
to  an  acute  appreciation  of  the  value  of 
this  the  greatest  labor-saving  appliance 
of  the  present  century: 

"Washington,  D.  C.,  July  13,  1888. --I 
have  been  familiar  with  the  graphophone 
since  April,  1887,  when  it  was  first 
brought  put,  and  began  its  use  as  soon  as 
I  could  obtain  the  first  instrument. 
Previously  all  my  dictation  had  been  done 
directly  to  typewriter  operators  or  to 
shorthand  amanuenses.  I  now  use  the 
graphophone  for  all  my  work,  and  it  is  as 
superior  to  the  old  method  as  is  the  lo- 
comotive to  the  stage-coach.  The  speed 
of  dictation  is  only  limited  by  ability 


133 


to  articulate,  and  often  runs  over  two 
hundred  words  per  minute.  The  day  the 
first  graphophone  arrived  I  dictated  to 
it  a  deposition  of  about  one  thousand 
words.  The  transcriber,  who  had  never 
before  attempted  such  work,  wrote  readily 
from  the  dictation  of  the  instrument,  and 
made  only  one  mistake  in  the  copy.  Our 
transcripts  are  as  accurate  as  those  made 
by  direct  dictation.  Patent  arguments, 
full  of  technical  and  unusual  terms,  are 
as  correctly  reproduced  as  simple  matter. 
The  graphophone  not  only  saves  the  time 
of  the  stenographer,  but  by  enabling  him 
to  accomplish  so  much  more  work  it  in- 
creases his  ability  to  earn.  I  can  turn 
out  at  least  twice  as  much  copy  per  day 
with  the  graphophone  as  I  ever  could  De- 
fore.  Since  June  11  I  have  been  report- 
ing debates  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, and  I  use  the  graphophone  there 
constantly.  My  transcriber  began  with 
only  half  an  hour's  preparation,  and  has 
achieved  highly  satisfactory  results.  He 
can  readily  do  what  two  shorthand  amanu- 
enses were  before  required  to  accom- 
plish." E.  D.  Easton. 


134 


PRESS  REPORTING  ON  THE  FLOOR  OF  THE  SENATE 


In  both  Houses  of  Congress  the  privi- 
lege of  access  to  the  floor  for  the  pur- 
pose of  newspaper  reporting  is  reserved 
for  the  representatives  of  two  great 
press  associations.  These  are  the  United 
Press  and  the  Associated  Press.  In  the 
Senate  the  gentlemen  representing  these 
organizations,  respectively,  are  Henry  G. 
Hayes  and  Henry  L.  Hayes.  Although  occu- 
pying the  professional  relation  of  "hated 
rivals",  they  are  father  and  son.  Never 
was  press  rivalry  conducted  with  such 
courtesy,  and  never  were  men  more  felici- 
tously chosen  for  this  responsible  and 
difficult  work.  They  sit  at  tables  placed 
immediately  in  front  of  the  desk  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Senate  and  in  line  with 
the  tables  of  the  Official  Reporters. 

While  the  press  reporter  on  the  floor 
must  at  all  times  be  prepared  to  take  the 
most  rapid  verbatim  notes,  yet,  as  his 
copy  is  for  the  newspapers  and  not  for 
the  Senate,  the  larger  proportion  of  his 
labors  consists  of  summarizing  the  de- 
bates. In  this  work  he  finds  the  pres- 
sure for  copy  to  be  intense  and  unremit- 
ting. The  wire  is  always  waiting,  and 
must  be  kept  "hot".  Hence,  when  the  sub- 


135 


ject  of  debate  is  one  which,  however  im- 
portant per  se ,  has  but  slight  interest 
for  the  general  public,  a  running  summary 
is  made  into  longhand  direct.  When  the 
subject  reaches  a  somewhat  higher,  though 
not  yet  the  highest,  plane  of  public  in- 
terest, the  shorthand  pen  is  brought  into 
play,  but  not  altogether  to  the  exclusion 
of  longhand.  The  flow  of  copy  must  con- 
tinue without  serious  interruption.  It 
can  be  suspended  only  as  occasion  re- 
quires,— to  note  a  new  point  of  interest 
in  the  debate,  a  striking  passage,  or  a 
"breezy"  colloquy.  As  the  reporter  must 
be  ever  on  his  guard  against  surprises, 
he  is  obliged  thus  to  carry  on  simultane- 
ously two  apparently  incompatible  pro- 
cesses,— the  writing  into  longhand,  in 
synoptical  form,  of  one  phase  of  a  debate 
while  listening  to  a  totally  different 
phase  which  may  itself  at  any  moment 
have  to  be  presented. 

The  law  underlying  the  labors  of  a 
stenographer  is  that  of  instantaneity . 
He  has  trained  himself  to  put  on  paper 
like  a  flash  the  words  that  at  the  moment 
of  writing  reach  his  ear.  Some  degree  of 
practice  in  concentration  is  necessary  to 
be  able  wholly  to  disregard  this  law  and 
to  come  under  the  domination  of  a  new  one 
which  requires  that  only  certain  impor- 
tant portions  of  the  matter  shall  be 


136 


taken, — the  reporter  being  the  judge,  and 
his  mental  energies  being  necessarily  di- 
vided between  the  work  of  producing  copy 
and  of  noting  the  salient  points  of  the 
debate  as  it  proceeds.  He  must  not  per- 
mit his  attention  to  be  so  absorbed  with 
his  transcription  as  that  he  shall  be 
without  ears.  The  moment  will  arrive 
when  he  must  instantly  abandon  his  tran- 
scripts and  resort  to  note-taking.  The 
emergency  over,  he  resumes  transcrip- 
tion, maintaining  an  observant  and  ex- 
pectant attitude — which,  indeed,  comes  in 
time  to  be  second  nature — with  reference 
to  the  current  debate. 

While,  as  I  have  said,  much  work  is 
thus  done  by  longhand,  and  much  by  the 
rapid  alternation  of  longhand  and  short- 
hand, yet  upon  important  occasions  the 
press  reporter,  like  the  Official  Re- 
porter, is  compelled  to  take  verbatim 
notes,  without  intermission,  for  long  pe- 
riods of  time.  This  Occurs  when  the  mat- 
ter under  consideration  has  considerable 
interest  and  attraction  for  the  public, 
and  when  at  the  same  time  the  speaker  is 
regarded  as  a  special  authority  upon  the 
subject.  When  this  involves  technical 
questions  relating,  for  example,  to  the 
administration  of  the  finances  or  impor- 
tant features  of  the  tariff  policy,  while 
it  may  be  exhilarating,  it  will  chal- 


137 


lenge  the  reporter  to  his  best  effort  in 
the  making  rapidly  of  notes  that  can  be 
read  with  the  facility  and  inerrancy  of 
print,-- as  the  occupant  of  this  position 
fhas  never  any  time  to  waste,  and  he  is 
constantly  admonished  that  "the  wire  is 
waiting. " 

In  transcribing  and  preparing  for  the 
wire  copy  thus  taken,  unless  the  speaker 
be  one  of  extraordinary  smoothness  of 
style,  the  reporter  takes  the  liberty  to 
transpose  occasional  clauses  and  strike 
out  trifling  repetitions,  which,  though 
natural  and  unavoidable  in  delivery,  yet 
become  excrescences  in  print.  Such  trim- 
ming and  touching,  however,  as  may  thus 
be  indulged  in  should  be  so  deftly  ef- 
fected and  so  in  harmony  with  the  verbal 
style  and  idiosyncrasies  of  the  speaker 
that  he  himself  would  be  unlikely  to  de- 
tect them.  Senators,  as  a  rule,  are  very 
correct  speakers.  They  are  all  men  of 
ability  and  of  strong  individuality,  who 
know  what  they  want  to  say  and  say  it. 
Some  of  them  are  men  of  rare  fluency  of 
speech  and  grace  of  style,  whom  to  report 
verbatim  is  a  source  of  keen  delight. 

Eugene  Davis. 


138 


PAGE  PROM  NOTE-BOOK  OP  CHARLES  FLOWERS 


but  elsewhere  throughout  the  nation,  the 
discussions  have  had  the  effect  of  making 
people  partisan.  You  go  out  into  the 
State  or  out  into  this  community,  and  you 
will  find  men  whose  minds  are  practically 
made  up, --made  up  from  what  they  have 
read,  made  up  from  ex  parte  statements  of 
individuals  with  whom  they  have  con- 
versed; and  so  throughout  the  community 
there  stand,  as  it  were,  two  parties, 
those  believing  and  those  disbelieving, — 
there  they  stand,  as  the  result  of  the 
widespread  publication  and  discussion  of 
the  facts  surrounding  and  believed  to 
surround  this  case.  Now,  you  will  remem- 
ber that  it  was  noted,  as  a  common  feat- 
ure of  it,  that  during  the  recent  trial 
in  Washington  of  the  assassin  of  Presi- 
dent Garfield  that  the  effect  of  reading 
the  testimony  in  that  case  from  day  to 
day  upon  the  minds  of  men  was  very 
marked, --so  much  so  that  men  who  were  be- 
lieved to  be  men  of  fair  minds  and  good 
judgment  became,  as  it  were,  insane  upon 
the  subject,  left  their  homes,  in  and 
about  Washington,  and  came  from  a  dis- 
tance, many  of  them,  filled  with  a  desire 


139 


for  notoriety  in  connection  with  that 
case--came  from  home  filled  with  a  de- 
sire— the  highest  honor  they  wished  was 
to  kill  the  assassin.  Men  who  were  just 
as  far  away  from  thoughts  of  murder  as 
man  can  be  were  thus  affected  by  reading 
the  reports  of  that  trial.  They  were 
found  in  the  city  of  Washington;  scien- 
tific men  have  endeavored  to  explain  the 
effect  which  that  reading  had  upon  their 
minds;  but  in  many  cases  they  were  taken 
and  put  into  asylums  for  a  few  days,  till 
the  nervous  excitement  under  which  they 
were  suffering  had  passed  away,  with  the 
story  which  gave  it  rise.  Now,  it  was 
very  noticeable  that  among  the  persons 
who  were  thus  attracted  to  Washington 
were  many  who  came  with  strange  stories-- 
stories which  they  believed,  stories  in 
which  they  had  every  confidence—and  it 
was  only  when  it  was  discovered  that  they 
were  not  in  their  right  mind,  and  that 
was  testified  to  by  friends,  that  their 
stories  were  disbelieved.  I  mention  that 
simply  as  a  peculiar  phenomenon  of  the 
operation  of  the  reading  of  cases  of  this 
kind  upon  the  mind  of  the  community.  You 
remember  that  Sergeant  Mason,  who  is  just 
now  suffering  sentence  for  having  endeav- 
ored to  shoot  the  assassin,  was  recog- 
nized— 


140 


PAGE  PROM  NOTE-BOOK  OF  GEORGE  N.  HILLMAN 


If  Ryan  told  the  defendant  that  there 
was  an  arrangement  between  himself  and 
Bradley  by  which  the  note  was  to  be  paid 
out  of  the  rent  of  the  premises  referred 
to,  and  that  he  would  not  be  called  upon 
for  payment,  and  the  defendant  believed 
and  relied  upon  this  statement  and  by 
reason  thereof  delayed  or  failed  to  take 
steps  to  protect  himself  as  against  Brad- 
ley, and  thereby  lost  his  opportunity  to 
protect  himself,  then  the  plaintiff  can 
not  recover  in  this  case.  In  other 
words,  if  by  any  statement  made  by  the 
then  holder  of  the  note,  the  defendant 
was  induced  to  withhold  any  action  in 
order  to  protect  himself,  and  was  thereby 
placed  at  a  disadvantage,  he  has  a  right 
now  to  insist  that  the  holder  of  the  note 
shall  stand  by  his  statement  and  that  the 
matter  shall  be  considered  as  if  the 
statement  was  true,  whether  it  was  in 
fact  true  or  not.  As  I  said  before, 
there  is  not  sufficient  evidence  in  this 
case  to  warrant  the  jury  in  finding  that 
the  note  was  in  fact  paid.  There  is  no 
evidence  that  it  was  in  fact  paid,  but 
there  is  evidence  that  this  statement  was 


141 


made,  that  is,  the  defendant  claims  that 
he  called  upon  Ryan  and  that  a  statement 
was  made  substantially  as  it  is  claimed 
upon  the  part  of  the  defendant  that  it 
was  made.  Upon  the  part  of  the  plaintiff 
there  is  the  evidence  of  the  witness 
Ryan,  who  was  the  party  claimed  to  have 
made  the  statement,  that  no  such  thing 
took  place,  that  he  made  no  such  repre- 
sentation, and  that,  upon  the  only  occa- 
sion upon  which  they  discussed  the  mat- 
ter, he  insisted  that  the  note  was  due 
and  had  to  be  paid,  and  that  there  was  no 
arrangement  between  him  and  Bradley  for 
the  payment;  and  that  is  the  only  ques- 
tion in  the  case--whe ther  the  defendant !s 
contention  in  regard  to  that  matter  is 
true,  or  the  contention  of  the  other 
party.  If  you  find  the  defendant's  claim 
to  be  correct,  then  you  would  find  for 
the  defendant.  He  would  not  be  liable 
upon  the  note.  If  you  find  that  that  is 
not  correct,  then  the  plaintiff  is  enti- 
tled to  recover  the  amount  of  the  note. 

(Extract  from  a  charge  of  Judge  Brill, 
of  the  Second  Judicial  District  Court, 
St.  Paul,  Minn. ) 


142 


A  PAGE  PROM  NOTE-BOOK  OF  JOSEPH  E.  LYONS 


Now,  upon  the  question  of  honesty,  for 
that  will  cut  a  figure,  I  suppose,  in  the 
case,  for  you  can't  certainly  say  that 
the  witnesses  for  the  defense  did  not 
have  as  good  means  of  knowledge  or  ob- 
servation as  to  what  the  condition  of  the 
Judge  was  at  this  time  as  those  of  the 
prosecution.  So  the  question  comes  right 
home  to  us,  Who  has  done  the  lying  in 
this  case?  Gentlemen,  that  is  the  fair 
and  square  issue  that  you  have  got  to 
meet.  That  is  the  fair  and  square  issue 
that  you  have  got  to  meet,  and  you  can't 
dodge  it  if  you  were  inclined  to,  because 
here  stand  witnesses  who  swear  diametri- 
cally opposite.  It  is  not  as  the  counsel 
say,  that  men  come  here  and  say  that  we 
didn't  notice  that  he  was  drunk,  as  the 
newspapers  brought  it  out  here  before 
they  did,  and  it  seems  rather  as  if  the 
managers  have  all  the  way  through  this 
case  tried  it  on  a  double  battle-field, 
here  in  the  hall  and  in  the  newspapers. 
And  we  had  it  advanced  in  the  newspapers 
very  early  during  this  battle,  that  of 
course — this  didn't  prove  anything;  first 
the  idea  about  the  different  standard  was 
advanced — whatever  these  men  say  don't 
amount  to  anything;  they  say  they  didn't 
see  Judge  Cox,  but  that  don't  amount  to 

143 


anything;  there  are  a  hundred  others  who 
can  say  that  they  didn't  see  him  drunk. 
Now,  has  there  been  any  evidence  of  that 
kind?  Have  the  newspapers  or  the  mana- 
gers the  right  to  characterize'  the  testi- 
mony in  that  respect,  as  they  have  done? 
Have  the  witnesses  for  the  respondent 
ever  come  here  and  told  you  simply  that 
they  didn't  see  he  was  drunk  or  didn't 
notice  that  he  was  drunk?  What  is  their 
testimony  all  the  way  through?  That  they 
were  right  there,  as  the  witnesses  for 
the  prosecution  are  (were).  The  witnesses 
for  the  prosecution  swear  that  he  was 
drunk.  The  witnesses  for  th«  defense 
come  in  and  tell  you  that  they  were  right 
there;  that  they  saw  him;  that  they  had 
the  means  of  observation;  that  they  no- 
ticed him,  and  that  he  was  sober.  There 
stands  the  two  statements  against  each 
other.  It  is  not  that  they  didn't  see 
it,  because  even  if  it  was  that,  under 
the  circumstance  that  has  been  brought 
forward  here,  showing  this  man  present 
at  a  particular  time,  showing  them  in  a 
position  in  which  they  could  observe  him, 
showing  them  in  a  position  in  which  they 
had  just  as  good  power  and  means  of  ob- 
servation as  the  witnesses  for  the  prose- 
cution had,  it  becomes  simply  a  question 
of  truthfulness  between  them,  who  tells 
the  truth  and  who  lies. 


144 


INDEX- 

Page 

Account  and  amount  distinguished,  14 

Acquirement  of  speed,   52 

Act  and  connect  distinguished,   17 

After  and  future  distinguished, 14 

Afternoon  and  forenoon  distinguished,  14 

Amount  and  account  distinguished,   14 

And  and  but  distinguished, 15 

A-n-d,  indiscriminate  use  of  tick  for, 40 

A-n-d,  misuse  of  tick  for, 41 

Annual  and  only  distinguished, 15 

A-n  tick,  examples  of  use  of, 47 

A-n  tick,  rule  for  use  of, 47 

Aspirate,  examples  of  use  of, 36 

Bishop,  Geo.  R. ,  reference  to, 10 

Blumenberg,  Milton  W. ,  contribution  of, 95 

Blumenberg,  Milton  W. ,  key  to  contribution  of, 117 

Blumenberg,  Milton  W.,  reference  to,   80 

Brown,  David  Wolfe,  contribution  of 96 

Brown,  David  Wolfe,  key  to  contribution  of,  120 

Brown,  David  Wolfe,  reference  to,   4,  54,  81 

Brown,  David  Wolfe,  selection  from  the  writings  of,  55 

But  and  and  distinguished, 15 

Can  and  can  not  distinguished, 16 

Causes  of  hesitation  in  writing,  29 

Change  from  one  system  to  another,  reference  to,   .  .  13,  96,  121 

Come  and  go  distinguished, 17 

Committee  Reporting.  W.  J.  Kehoe, 103,  131 

Composite  Shorthand  System.   John  H.  White,   98,  123 

Condition  and  difference  distinguished,  26 

Conflicting  word-forms,  etc.,  chapter  relating  to,  10 

Conflicting  word-forms,  etc.,  list  of,   27 

Connect  and  act  distinguished, 17 

Contractions,  etc.,  list  of, 27 

Contractions,  reference  to  defective  lists  of,  10 

Contributions ,   .   89-106 

Contributions,  keys  to,   110-138 

Copy,  keep,  and  occupy  distinguished,  25 

Davis,  Eugene,  contribution  of,   105 

Davis,  Eugene,  key  to  contribution  of, 135 

Davis,  Eugene,  reference  to,  83,  84 

Devine,  Andrew,  contribution  of,   99 

Devine,  Andrew,  key  to  contribution  of, 124 

Devine,  Andrew,  reference  to,  81,  133 

Difference  and  condition  distinguished,   26 

Difficulties  of  Verbatim  Reporting.  M.  W.  Blumenberg,   .  95,  117 

Distinctive  outlines,  reference  to,   10,  12 

Dunham,  Samuel  C.,  fac-simile  reporting  notes  of 62 

Dunham,  Samuel  C.,  key  to  fac-simile  reporting  notes  of,  .  .   75 

_  _ 


Page 

Dunham,  Samuel  C.,  shorthand  matter  written  by,  55-62 

Dunham,  Samuel  C.,  key  to  shorthand  matter  written  by ,  .  .   63-76 

Earnest  and  erroneous  distinguished,   17 

Easton,  E.  D. ,  contribution  of, 104 

Easton,  E.  D.  ,  key  to  contribution  of, 133 

Easton,  E.  D.,  reference  to, 82,  99,  124 

Enough  and  nothing  distinguished,  19 

Erroneous  and  earnest  distinguished 17 

Every  and  very  distinguished, 25 

Examine  and  summon  distinguished,   18 

Expend  and  spend  distinguished,  18 

Extract  from  Speech  of  Senator  Harris.   D.  P.  Murphy,   .   89,  110 

Fac-simile  reporting  notes,  62,  107-109 

Pew  and  half  distinguished, 18 

First  Users  of  the  Graphophone.   E.  D.  Easton,   ....   104,  133 

Flowers,  Charles,  fac-slmile  reporting  notes  of,  107 

Flowers,  Charles,  key  to  fac-simile  reporting  notes  of,  .  .  .  139 

Flowers,  Charles,  reference  to,   83 

Forenoon  and  afternoon  distinguished,  14 

From  and  through  distinguished,   26 

Future  and  after  distinguished,  14 


Sensler,  H.  J.,  contribution  of, 


93 


Gensler,  H.  J.,  key  to  contribution  of, 114 


Gensler,  H.  J.,  reference  to, 


80 


Go  and  come  distinguished,   17 

Graham,  Andrew  J.,  reference  to,  8,  16,  17,  21,  23,  55,  58,  64,  68 
Graham,  Andrew  J.,  reference  to  Kand-Book  of,  .  .   12,  20,  34,  50 


Grammalogues,  list  of, 


27 


Grammalogues,  reference  to  defective  lists  of,   10 


Half  and  few  distinguished, 


18 


Hemperley,  Francis  H.,  reference  to,   73 

Hesitation  in  writing,  causes  of,   29 

H,  hesitation  in  use  of, 33-36 

Hillman,  Geo.  N.,  fac-simile  reporting  notes  of,  108 

Hillman,  Geo.  N.,  key  to  fac-simile  reporting  notes  of,  .  .  .  141 

Hillman,  Geo.  N.,  reference  to, 84 ,  88 

Him  and  me  distinguished 19 

House  of  Representatives.   A.  C.  Welch, 100,  127 

H-stroke,  examples  of  use  of, 35 

H-stroke,  new  rule  for  use  of, 34 

H-tick,  examples  of  use  of, 35 

Introduction,   . 

Inventors  of  the  Talking-Machine.   Andrew  Devine,  .  .  .  .99,  124 

Irland,  Fred,  contribution  of, 101 

Irland,  Fred,  key  to  contribution  of, 128 

Irland,  Fred,  reference  to, 82,  83,  87 

Joys  of  an  Official  Reporter  to  Committees.  G.  C.  Lafferty,  102,  130 

Keep,  occupy,  and  copy  distinguished 25 

Kehoe,  W.  J.,  contribution  of,   103 

Kehoe,  W.  J.,  key  to  contribution  of, 131 

Kehoe,  W.  J.,  reference  to, 82 


146 


Page 

K,  lengthening  of,  to  add  ted  or  tr,  .  .  . 61,  74 

Lafferty,  Geo.  C.,  contribution  of, 102 

Lafferty,  Geo.  C.,  key  to  contribution  of, 130 

Lafferty,  Geo.  C.,  reference  to, » 82 

Later  and  older  distinguished, 20 

Lengthening  of  P,  K,  and  Ray  to  add  ted  or  tr,   61,  74 

Lloyd,  Dan.  B.,  contribution  of, 94 

Lloyd,  Dan.  B.,  key  to  contribution  of, 116 

Lloyd,  Dan.  B.,  reference  to,   . 80 

Longley,  Elias,  reference  to, 56,  59,  60,  65,  70,  71 

L-stroke,  exceptions  to  rules  for  use  of, 30 

L-stroke,  misuse  of, 29-33 

Lyons,  Joseph  E.,  fac-simile  reporting  notes  of,  109 

Lyons,  Joseph  E. ,  key  to  fac-simile  reporting  notes  of,  .  .  .  143 

Lyons,  Joseph  E.,  reference  to, 84 

Marsh,  Andrew  J.,  reference  to, 16 

Maybury,  Wm.  C.,  reference  to, .   83 

McElhone,  John  J.,  reference  to, 81 

Me  and  him  distinguished, 19 

Mental  Processes  of  Shorthand  Reporting.  Theo.  P.  Shuey,   90,  111 

Munson,  James  E.,  reference  to, 10,  16,  58,  68 

Murphy,  D.  F.   contribution  of, 89 

Murphy,  D.  P.  key  to  contribution  of, 110 

Murphy,  D.  P.   reference  to, 55,  63,  79 

Murphy,  E.  V.   contribution  of,   .  .  •. 92 

Murphy,  E.  V.   key  to  contribution  of, 113 

Murphy,  E.  V.   reference  to, 80 

Murphy,  J.  J.   reference  to, 80 

Needless  Burdens  of  the  Modern  Learner,   David  Wolfe  Brown,  55-73 

Night  and  year  distinguished, 23 

Nothing  and  enough  distinguished,   19 

Occupy,  copy,  and  keep  distingiiished, 25 

Older  and  later  distinguished, 20 

Only  and  annual  distinguished, 15 

Osgoodby,  W.  W.,  reference  to, 10 

Paid  and  put  distinguished, 21 

Past  tense,  method  of  indicating  the, 37 

Phonetic  Council,  reference  to, 58,  68,  69 

Phrases  Used  by  Senate  Reporters.  H.  J.  Gensler,   .  .  .   93,  114 

Phrasing  of  unfamiliar  words,  40,  46 

Phrasing,  rules  for, 46 

Phrasing,  unnatural,  examples  of,  42-44 »  49-50 

Phrasing,  unnatural,  remarks  relating  to,   40-45,  48-51 

Phrase-writing,  chapter  relating  to,   39-51 

Pitman,  Benn,  reference  to,   58,  68 

Pitman,  Isaac,  reference  to,   7,  10,  58,  68 

Practice  and  principle-pal  distinguished,   21 

Preface,   3 

Press  Reporting  on  the  Floor  of  the  Senate.  Eugene  Davis,  105,135 

Principle-pal  and  practice  distinguished,  21 

Put  and  paid  distinguished, 21 


147 


Page 

Rate  of  Speaking  in  the  Senate.   Dan.  B.  Lloyd,  94,  116 

Ray,  lengthening  of,  to  add  ted  or  tr, 61,  74 

Read  and  write  distinguished, 32 

Regard  and  regret  distinguished,  , 22 

Remington  typewriter,  reference  to,  3 

Reporting  notes 62,  107-109 

Requirements  of  a  Reporter.   E.  V.  Murphy, 92,  113 

R-stroke,  misuse  of, 29-33 

Satisfy  and  suit  distinguished, 22 

Selected  Matter  and  Shorthand  Notes,  54-76 

Shorthand  Contributions  and  Fac-simile  Reporting  Notes,  .   79-144 

Shorthand  notes,  55-62,  89-109 

Shuey,  Theo.  P.,  contribution  of,  .' 90 

Shuey,  Theo.  P.,  key  to  contribution  of, Ill 

Shuey,  Theo.  F.  ,  reference  to, 4,  79 

Situation  and  station  distinguished,  22 

Spend  and  expend  distinguished, . 18 

Station  and  situation  distinguished,  22 

Stenographer,  The,  reference  to, 54,  73 

Suggestions  and  Cautions.   David  Wolfe  Brown,   96,  120 

Suit  and  satisfy  distinguished, 22 

Summon  and  examine  distinguished IS 

Tense,  past,  method  of  indicating,   37 

The,  misuse  o'f  tick  for, 41,  42 

These  and  those  distinguished, 23 

The-tick,  examples  of  use  of 48 

The-tick,  indiscriminate  use  of,   40 

The-tick,  rule  for  use  of, 46 

Those  and  these  distinguished 23 

Through  and  from  distinguished, 26 

Ticks,  misuse  of,  for  a-n-d  and  the, 41,  42 

Ticks,  rule  for  use  of,  for  a-n-d  and  the, 46 

T,  lengthening  of,  to  add  ted  or  tr,  ' 61,  74 

True  and  truth  distinguished, 23 

Unnatural  phrasing,  40,  42-45 

Unnatural  phrasing,  examples  of,  42-44,  49-50 

Unnatural  phrasing,  remarks  relating  to,   40-45,  48-51 

Use  of  the  Phrasing  Principle.   Fred  Irland, 101,  128 

Very  and  every  distinguished,  .  .  .  -. 25 

Vocalization,  necessity  for,  25 

Vowels,  reference  to  use  of 24 

Welch,  A.  C.,  contribution  of, 100 

Welch,  A.  C.,  key  to  contribution  of, 127 

Welch,  A.  C.,  reference  to, 81 

White,  John  K.,  contribution  of,   98 

White,  John  H.,  key  to  contribution  of, 123 

White,  John  H. ,  reference  to, 81 

Word-forms,  conflicting,  chapter  relating  to,   10 

Write  and  read  distinguished, 32 

Writing,  causes  of  hesitation  in,   29 

Year  and  night  distinguished, 23 


148 


ADVERTISEMENTS 


THE  "TALKING  MACHINE" 

(EDISON'S  PHONOGRAPH  AND  THE  PERFECTED  GRAPHOPHONE) 
Is  the  Stenographer's  Best  Friend. 


More  than  fifty  in  use  in  the  United  States  Capitol  alone, 
fourteen  by  official  reporters  of  debates.  Mr.  D.  F.  Murphy,  the 
most  experienced  and  skillful  stenographer  in  the  world,  acknowl- 
edged by  all  shorthand  writers  to  stand  at  the  head  of  the  pro- 
fession, says: 

"No  matter  how  high  the  rate  of  speed  at  which  the  reporter 
reads  his  notes,  he  is  never  stopped  by  questions,  never  asked  to 
repeat  a  sentence,  and  has  always  the  assurance  that  every  word 
which  is  enunciated  will  be  faithfully  reproduced. 

"By  the  use  of  the  phonograph  twice  as  much  copy  can  be 
turned  out  in  a  given  time,  and  in  better  shape,  than  by  the  use 
of  the  most  skillful  shorthand  amanuensis.  So  indispensable  has 
the  phonograph  become  to  the  business  of  my  office,  that  the  won- 
der of  myself  and  associates  now  is  how  we  were  able  heretofore 
to  get  along  without  it." 


STENOGRAPHERS   WANTED   AS   AGENTS 


For  Catalogue  and  full  details,   address 
COLUMBIA        PHONOGRAPH        COMPANY 

Edward  D.  Easton,  President, 
No.  919  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  Washington,  D.  C. 

iii 


THE   AMERICAN   SYSTEM   OP   SHORTHAND 


To  supply  the  increasing  demand  for  stenographers, 
schools  of  shorthand  and  typewriting  have  been  estab- 
lished in  various  parts  of  the  country,  and,  with  few 
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ment of  shorthand".  A  number  of  systems  are  taught, 
but  that  of  Eenn  Pitman  is  more  generally  used  than  any 
other  in  this  country,  and  may  be  called  the  "American 
System". — Extract  from  the  Report  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Education  (Washington,  D.  C.),  1887-'88,  page  927. 


The  following  is  a  graphic  summary  of  the  Table  of  Statis- 
tics on  the  Teaching  of  Shorthand  in  the  United  States,  in  the 
Bureau  of  Education  Circular  of  Information  No.  1,  1893,  pages 
40  to  141: 


fBenn  Pitman,  747  teachers, 
34.7  per  cent. 


Graham,  363  teachers,  16.8  per  cent. 


Munson,  228  teachers,  10.6  per  cent. 


Cross,  185  teachers,  8.6  per  cent. 


Isaac  Pitman,  143  teachers,  6.7  per  cent. 


Lindsley,  81  teachers,  3.7  per  cent. 


Pernin,  64  teachers,  2.5  per  cent. 

Scott<-Browne,  52  teachers,  2.4  per  cent. 

—  Longley,  52  teachers,  2.4  per  cent. 

—  McKee,  36  teachers,  1.6  per  cent. 

—  Pitman  (unspecified),  35  teachers,  1.6  per  cent. 

—  Moran,  30  teachers,  1.3  per  cent. 

— Sloan-Duployan,  24  teachers,  1.1  per  cent. 

Besides  38  others,  each  being  less  than  1  per  cent. 


For  complete  Catalogu'e  of  Text-books  and  other  publications, 
address 

THE  PHONOGRAPHIC  INSTITUTE  COMPANY, 

Cincinnati,  Ohio. 


iv 


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For  One  Dollar  (or  $1.25,  foreign  countries  in  the  Postal  Union,) 

we  will  send  it  for  twelve  months. 


T 

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A  Monthly  Magazine  Devoted  to  the  Interests  of  Shorthand  Writers 
and  Users  of  the  Typewriter. 


It  contains  notes  representing  ALL  SYS- 
TEMS of  Shorthand;  Department  of  Law  Re- 
porting and  Legal  Miscellany  (edited  by  a 
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Address 


STENOGRAPHER  PRINTING  AND  PUBLISHING  COMPANY, 


Sixth  and  Chestnut  streets, 


PHILADELPHIA. 


WATERMAN'S    IDEAL   FOUNTAIN   PEN 


IS  THE  MOST  SATISFACTORY  WRITING  INSTRUMENT  FOR  STENOGRAPHIC  WORK 


W.  W.  Osgoodby,  Stenographer  of  the  New  York  Supreme  Court, 
Rochester,  N.  Y. ,  says: 

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IT  WILL  WRITE  AS  LONG  AS  THERE  IS  A  DROP  OF  INK  LEFT  IN  THE  HOLDER 


A  stenographer  who  has  accustomed  himself  to  using  a  pen  for  his 

notes  can  write  faster  than  with  a  pencil.   If  his  pen  is 

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Address  L.  E.  WATERMAN  CO.,  No.  157  Broadway,  New  York,  U.  S.  A. 


THE   REMINGTON   TYPEWRITER 


The  Original,  and  for  Twenty  Years 

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Embodies  Correct  Fundamental  Princi. 
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viii 


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ix 


PRACTICAL   TYPEWRITING 


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The  best  work  on  typewriting  extant. — Prof.  Alfred  Day. 

It  is  a  gem.  If  brought  to  the  notice  of  learners,  type- 
writing would  be  revolutionized. — W.  N.  Ferris,  "Ferris"  Indus- 
trial School. 

Mr.  Torrey  has  done  the  world  a  real  service  by  the  prepara- 
tion of  this  book. — The  Writer. 

It  is  the  most  practical  treatise  on  the  subject  I  have  ever 
seen. — N.  Stewart  Dunlop,  Pres.  Canadian  Shorthand  Society. 

It  surely  has  no  competitor. — H.  A.  Pickering,  Court  Report- 
er, Boston. 

Though  I  have  operated  a  typewriter  nearly  ten  years,  I  was 
surprised  that  enough  could  be  said  on  the  subject  to  fill  a 
book.  The  book  is  worth  twice  its  price. — E.  W.  L.  Nichols, 
Stenographe'r,  Boston. 

You  have  made  a  hit.  There  will  be  a  great  improvement  in 
writing  without  looking  at  the  keys  in  the  next  few  years. — S.  G. 
Greenwood,  "Greenwood's  Finishing  School",  Boston. 

Having  been  in  the  business  ten  years,  I  thought  I  knew  all 
about  it,  but  find  in  your  book  many  things  new  to  me.--A.  B. 
Reid,  of  A.  B.  Reid  &  Co.,  Chicago. 

The  chapter  in  fac-simile  is  simply  a  revelation. — W.  S. 
Boyd,  Patent  Attorney,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Mr.  Torrey  deserves  success,  for  there  is  evidence  enough  in 
this  book  to  convict  him  of  being  most  thorough,  practical,  accu- 
rate, and  novel  in  all  that  he  does.  .  .  .  Page  60  alone  is  worth 
ten  times  the  price  of  the  book. — National  Stenographer. 


By  mail,  postpaid,  on  receipt  of  price. 
WELLS  CO.,  27  East  21st  st.,  New  York. 


Address  FOWLER  & 


DON'T  buy  a  Rib- 
bon or  a  Sheet 
of  Carbon  Paper 
until  you  have 
thoroughly  tested 
ours. 


Typewriter's  Ribbons 


Trade  (ROUND  BOX|  mark 
Carbon  Papers,  Etc. 


THEY  are  always 
uniform,  do  not 
fade  out,  last 
longer,  and  work 
better  than  any 
other  make. 


MITTAG   &   VOLGER, 


Manufacturers  of 


RIBBONS   AND   CARBON   PAPERS 


For  typewriters  and  all  other  purposes. 


PARK  RIDGE,  NEW  JERSEY. 


KEEP   EVERLASTINLY   AT    IT 


I'm  the  COLUMBIAN,  "The  Modern  Device"  for  Sharpening  Lead 
Pencils.  NOT  being  built  on  the  "'Til-I-Get-Dull"  or  "Good-for-a 
Short-Time"  plan,  heretofore  in  vogue,  I  am  therefore  able  to 
serve  you  for  YEARS,  instead  of  for  a  short  time,  as  HAS  been  the 
rule.  I  point  those 

GRIMY  NECESSITIES,  LEAD  PENCILS, 

quickly,  uniformly,  and  in  a  cleanly  manner,  and  "I  KEEP  EVERLAST- 
INGLY AT  IT."  Indeed,  next  to  Stenography,  I  am  the  BEST  FRIEND 
of  Stenographers  who  use  Lead  Pencils. 

Full  nickel  plate,  and  may  be  carried  in  the  vest  pocket. 

Will  send  my  Uncle  Sam  on  the  Jump  with  Rectangular  Circular 
Primer  if  you  will  address  the  folks  where  I  board- 

AUTOMATIC  MACHINE  COMPANY, 

Station  I,  Elgin,  111.,  U.S.A. 


xi 


UNIQUE 


HANDBOOK  OP  ARTISTIC   TYPEWRITER  FORMS 


This  work,  which  is  now  in  course 
of  preparation  and  which  will  be  duly 
announced  in  the  shorthand  periodi- 
cals, will  consist  of  numerous  exam- 
pies  of  correctly-executed  commercial 
forms,  business  letters,  and  tabular 
statements. 

The  only  typewriter  forms  ever 
published  which  conform  strictly  to 
the  rules  of  typography  and  which 
are  so  constructed  as  to  bear  the 
criticism  of  practical  printers. 

The  first  book  on  the  subject  to 
exhibit  the  proper  use  of  marks  of 
punctuation. 

Produced  in  the  same  manner  as  The 
Missing  Link  in  Shorthand.  Contains 
100  pages,  &£by  &J-  inches,  handsomely 
bound  in  cloth.  Price,  $1.00,  post- 
paid. 


Published  by  the  author, 

SAMUEL  C.    DUNHAM, 
Postoffice  Box  313,  Washington,   D.   C. 


USEFUL 


xii 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


1AR  1  7  1950 
JUN  1  7  1950 

SEP  6     1951 , 


Form  L9-10w-3,'48  ( A7920 )  444 


UNIVERSITY  ol 

AT 


Z53 

D92m  Dunhani- 


link  in  shorthand, 


Z53 

D93m 


A  000  564  858  9 


{ 


XAS 


